Tourism angers Bo-Kapenaars
In the colourful Bo-Kaap, residents are angered by tourism and gentrification in the old inner-city neighbourhood, which holds on to a long history of Islamic and Cape Malay traditions. Their ire seems not to have been influenced by Gatvol Capetonian but is directed at the tourism industry.
Three months ago, Shakirah Dramat began a small protest in Wale Street, on the periphery of the Bo-Kaap, during peak-hour traffic. She would stop drivers and tell them how gentrification has caused rental prices to skyrocket and how local businesses have shrunk next to new investments.
Dramat posted a Facebook video that echoed the sentiments of Bo-Kaap residents, which inspired some young people to become more active in the protests.
“I’m fucking tired of the way this community is being treated. I’m tired of the tourism industry in South Africa and the tourists coming in and out of this area, going to view all of two roads and thinking that they understand Cape Malay history. I’m sorry but you understand nothing about slavery,” Dramat said in the video.
Over the past two weeks, protest action has intensified. Young men have rolled burning tyres into Wale Street to block traffic during peak hour. One protest leader says he has never heard of Gatvol Capetonian. He wants to keep his identity secret to prevent being identified as a protester by police.
Dramat, who has now started Bo-Kaap
Rise, says that she knows about the Gatvol Capetonian group in passing through social media but does not know the people involved in the group.
Rademeyer says the Siqalo situation may have been the tipping point, but the Cape Flats housing crisis has long threatened to ignite a fullscale revolution among coloured people.
Johannes believes the Woodlands protest started because of the perceived success of the Siqalo demonstration, which ignited anger against people from the Eastern Cape who have moved to Cape Town to find houses and jobs.
“They came here [Woodlands] to mark off plots for themselves. Then we saw it and said we will take this land, not people from the Eastern Cape,” Johannes says.
Adams adds: “The ANC should have industrialised the Eastern Cape and cultivated business there, so people don’t have to migrate at the rate of 40000 every month and … after six months, demand a house,” Longtime Woodlands resident Fareed Hendricks says the land occupations have turned racist because of the influx of people from other provinces.
“We’ve been waiting all these years for houses and then the people from the Eastern Cape arrive and protest, and they are given houses.