Wipe this word off the map
Twenty-six years into the new SA and the country’s most hated and hurtful slur still appears on signposts and title deeds across the land, writes Jeff Wicks
Though the K-word has repeatedly been defined as hate speech, the dehumanising slur remains a feature on maps and title deeds throughout SA. The names of rivers, towns, farms and smallholdings still contain the word, even as protests against racism and colonialism spread across the globe under the banner of #BlackLivesMatter, set in motion by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, US, in May.
This week the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said any reference to the K-word needs to be wiped off the map, and civil society groups said until these names are changed, they will continue to cause harm.
As a boy, 68-year-old Meshack Ntlatlanyane was called the K-word regularly by the farmer he worked for outside Klerksdorp in the North West. “He would shout to me across the field and say ‘Kom hier jou klein k ***** tjie’. I hate that word,” he said.
But even as a pensioner the word haunts Ntlatlanyane because his house is built on land called the Kafferskraal Agricultural Holding.
“There used to be a sign on the road. It was taken down, but that is still the name of this place,” he said.
“Some just drop the K-word and call it Kraal, but if you ask someone for directions here, they will call it by the old name.”
SAHRC chair Bongani Majola said: “We would like the government to search its deeds registry and expunge all such names.
“Local authorities must also do the name [search] and change all these pernicious reminders of the past.”
Human rights commissioner Chris
Nissen said the change would need to be championed by the government at a high level, something that has been lacking.
Advertisements on Property24 featuring the name Kafferskraal were taken down after the site was contacted by the Sunday Times.
Property24 CEO JP Farinha said there were nearly 4,500 areas reflected on the site, all derived from government sources.
“We were unaware these K-word names existed within our database and find it deeply offensive that they have still not been changed,” he said.
“Until all offensive names are corrected at source, via the deeds office and surveyorgeneral, title deeds will contain these names. They will come up in Google Maps and property searches, they will continue to be used by the post office and for ecommerce delivery. Until these name changes are instituted, they will continue to be referenced.”
Near Warden in the Free State, what was once the hamlet of Kafferstad remains a feature on maps. “If you put the name into the GPS it will bring you right here,” said farmer Leon Loubser, 69.
“For us it is normal; we have lived with the name for as long as we have been here. This land goes back to the days of the Voortrekkers. But the K-word has an emotional meaning and people get very riled up. It doesn’t benefit anyone that we hang on to it.”
Claire Kelly of the Cornerstone Institute, which works to improve relationships between communities, said the failure to remove such names amounts to tacit approval.
“Stripping these names is a very important step in signalling our deliberate denouncement and move away from that logic. But it is only a first step. Racist logic persists in many forms, [including] university curriculums and school dress codes.”
Michael Morris of the South African Institute of Race Relations said the K-word stood for the kind of society the vast majority of citizens reject, “a society based on judging people by their appearance and assigning demeaning qualities to that appearance. The word has no currency other than as a term of denigration.”
The arts & culture department said it will eradicate offensive names, but insisted the process will have to be driven by citizens. The surveyor-general did not respond to Sunday Times queries.
Until all offensive names are corrected at source, via the deeds office and surveyor-general, title deeds will contain these names
JP Farinha Property24 CEO
Some just drop the K-word and call it Kraal, but if you ask someone for directions here, they will call it by the old name
Meshack Ntlatlanyane, left, Klerksdorp
The K-word has an emotional meaning and people get very riled up. It doesn’t benefit anyone that we hang on to it
Leon Loubser, left, Warden