The Hindu Business Line : The black elite of S. Africa

As we wind down our trip in Cape Town, the one definite takeaway from the 8-day trip will be the magic combination of the cool waters of the sea on one side and the undulating hills – now green, now brown – as well as the awesome Table Mountain that dominates the skyline of this southern town of South Africa.

There are different figures given out on the white and black population mix and the number varies because of the large numbers of coloured people. But a rough reckoning is that the country has about 10 per cent of white population and the remaining are a mix of black and coloured. So the white are clearly in a minority in the country, but the puzzle of why I see so many whites in Cape town is explained on the last day by Thomas Ringer, the General Manager of the luxurious Greenways Hotel to which South African Tourism, which has sponsored the trip, has shifted me.

A five star hotel, its exclusiveness can be imagined by it having just 16 suites in a huge bungalow built in 1927 in a six acre property. Ringer is the son-in-law of the German man who owns the hotel, and his wife Susanne is its Managing Director. In the couple, one finally finds two people with some reliable information on the country. “While South Africa has about 10 per cent white population, in Cape Town the percentage is much higher around 24-25 per cent; also there are a lot of European tourists, particularly the British, who visit this place,” says Thomas.

He confirms that the wine lands of Cape Town are almost entirely owned by Europeans and people of European descent. He and Susanne are important members of the province’s hospitality industry and estimate annual tourist arrivals in South Africa to be around 8.5 million, but “this would include people like us who go back and forth to our countries.” The effort that goes into maintaining the 6-acre property – its manicured lawns, its imperious sitting and dining areas, the elegantly organised sit-outs in the back verandah that opens out to lush green rolling meadows, which wind down to an immaculately maintained swimming pool where all kinds of exotic birds keep you company as you swim – must be colossal.

“Oh yes, it’s not that easy to find the right people”, sighs the German woman, who ran the place as a guest house till 2002. While renovating the property long distance from Munich in 2002 to convert it into a hotel, “and after getting the 20th e-mail of the day wondering whether the tiles on the left side of the swimming pool should be of this measurement or that” she decided to fly down to Cape Town for the work, and never went back.

Susanne is a passionate advocate of the greening and environmental sustainability of South African hotels, and encourages guests to reuse towels and not insist on the linen being changed daily. “I’d give six towels a day to somebody who demands them, but thankfully, we rarely get that kind of guests!”

She dismisses suggestions that the crime rate in Cape Town can be daunting for tourists. “Oh no, this is one of the safest places in the world, but of course tourists have to behave sensibly.” In the last few years she has had only two complaints from guests; and these were minor complaints, with one person losing his cell phone.

When one comments on the clean and green city and its fabulous roads, Susanne says, “Oh yes, in terms of infrastructure, everything has been done. But there is so much more that this country, which is so blessed in natural resources can do, provided it has efficient governance.”

Well, an Indian can understand her frustration at how politicians don’t keep their election promises “and many of them do not even have the competence to spend the money that is available. That is why our economy has taken a beating and the Rand has depreciated so steeply; 30 per cent against the Euro in just a year. Inflation has gone up, food prices have almost doubled and ordinary people find it difficult to manage their affairs.”

While Susanne doesn’t think the whites in South Africa now ‘face reverse racism’ as is often contended, she says a section of the black community, particularly those who have had good education, many a times in universities abroad, are doing very well. “The other day I read that the richest white man in South Africa is no. 14 on the country’s list of the richest people.”

And this is what gives her hope about South Africa’s future. “There is a very, very upbeat/upmarket black population in South Africa; it took me a while… 4-5 years to meet and interact with them. I find these people to be highly educated and extremely brainy… and am confident they are going to change the country.”