Is Cape Town racist? Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has, in the past, rejected the notion that the city is especially racist compared to other places in South Africa. “This is a perception the ANC is trying to create because the voters of the Western Cape – a minority of whom are white – have rejected the ANC,” she told City Press in January.

In the past, Zille has been yet more adamant in denial. “If Cape Town is racist, why are people moving to the City in such significant numbers?” she wrote in 2009. “And once here, why are most of them so keen to stay?”

In 2011, singer Simphiwe Dana’s accusation of Cape Town’s racism on Twitter were met by Zille’s dismissal of it as a “baseless assertion”.

A few months ago, Cape Town’s Mayor Patricia de Lille asked in an interview: “Why did the ANC not call Cape Town the Apartheid capital when they were governing the province along with the National Party?”

Pressed by Cape Talk presenter Kieno Kammies for an answer on Monday as to whether de Lille believed that Cape Town was a racist city, she responded in the negative.

“No, I don’t believe Cape Town is a racist city,” she said. “The decent majority are not racist. But the reality is that there is a minority that has the power to shape wider perceptions that are racist.”

These defences have been strained by a succession of racist incidents in the city over the past year: from a gardener beaten with a sjambok to the attack of a domestic worker “mistaken” for a sex worker. In November, district prosecutor Nathan Johnson listed ten such cases going through the legal system to the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court.

On Saturday, large adverts appeared in the city’s newspapers, depicting photographs of individual Capetonians alongside their quoted thoughts on race.

“My dream is for us to mix and accept each other 100%,” said “Malika”.

“Know your rights. You can associate with whomever you want to,” ran a strapline beneath. “Cape Town against racism.”

“Racism slows down production. It’s bad for the success of the city,” was the contribution of “Tiger”. Beneath, a slightly different tagline: “Know your rights. You cannot be discriminated against.”

The ads form part of a new anti-racism campaign by the City of Cape Town, launched on Saturday by De Lille to mark Human Rights Day. Explaining the Inclusive City campaign to the media, however, De Lille was careful to paint racism as a problem far from exclusive to Cape Town.

“From Durban to Johannesburg, from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, from Kimberley to Pretoria, and everywhere in between, our historical experience of race lives with us all in South Africa,” de Lille said. “That is why incidents of racism occur throughout the country.” She also cited racial tensions beyond South Africa’s borders, everywhere from USA to Uganda.

“As such, we should not be surprised that [incidents of racism] sometimes occur in Cape Town,” she said. “As a diverse, multi-cultural city, why would we be excluded from global and national experiences?”

The Director of Strategy and Operations for the City of Cape Town, Craig Kesson, told Daily Maverick on Monday that the Inclusive City campaign has four main components. One involves engaging representatives from industries which have been associated with racist incidents in recent months: property, retail, hospitality and tertiary education.

A social media drive and the ad campaign are also part of it, together with “engagements through the structures of council”. Lastly, a “dialogue with eminent South Africans” will take place.

Asked if the campaign’s launch was tantamount to an acknowledgement that Cape Town has a racism problem, Kesson also sidestepped the specifics.

“South Africa has a racism problem,” he responded. “But we want to take the lead here in Cape Town to tackle the recent spate of racist incidents here and promote a solid confrontation of these issues among our residents.”

One criticism likely to be levelled against the Inclusive City campaign is that it targets only the problem of racism between individuals, rather than its structural roots. Software developer Adrian Frith’s dot-maps of racial distribution in South Africa show, for instance, the extent to which Cape Town’s layout still manifests the spatial legacy of Apartheid.

“As the mayor said on Saturday, one cannot easily direct these types of campaigns to underlying structural questions of institutionalised racism,” Kesson said. “It is the role of policy interventions to address the material effect on the life opportunities of people who have been affected by historical structural discrimination on the basis of race.”

What can be achieved by this kind of campaign, Kesson suggested, includes “changing attitudes, developing action among key industries, and building an awareness of rights”. Government could be supported in this regard by civil society, business, and academia.

Cape Town’s leaders have at several points expressed frustration with non-detailed accusations of the city’s racism. In January Zille pledged that she would follow up on “every specific incident of alleged racism in the Western Cape if the details are brought to me”.

Last week, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa told the National Assembly that he had black friends who had been the victims of racial discrimination when trying to book Cape Town hotel rooms or rent flats.

Mayor de Lille has now called upon Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to “send me the evidence to back up your claims made in Parliament” that Cape Town landlords and hotels treat black people differently.

De Lille might consider raiding her own memory bank for further evidence. In 2006, De Lille – at that point leader of the Independent Democrats, prior to their DA takeover – said she was barred from having a drink at the Radisson hotel at the Waterfront twice in two weeks because of her race.

“I came to the conclusion that I was turned away on the basis of colour,” De Lille told the BBC after the incident. The Radisson denied any race-based rejections of potential clients. DM

Photo: A file picture dated 02 December 2009 shows a view of Table Mountain and the 2010 World Cup stadium Greenpoint Stadium in the foreground, Cape Town, South Africa. EPA/JON HRUSA

Read more:

• Racism, says De Lille after drinks incident, on IOL

• SA politician claims hotel racist, on BBC