"Whites" not welcome at accommodation on Table Mountain

- AfriForum submits complaint to HRC

The civil rights initiative AfriForum has just submitted a complaint of racial discrimination on behalf of two students - Etienne and Stiaan Terblanche - to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) against the Table Mountain National Park, after these two students had been refused accommodation at the People's Trail Hut because they are "white".  AfriForum will also take this case to the Equality Court if the HRC does not treat the matter with the gravity it deserves.

While hiking on Table Mountain, the students came across the People's Trail Hut and called the number given on the door of the hut to find out whether they could make a reservation for a night.  They were then told by telephone that the hut is for the use of "black people" only and not for "whites".  The voice of the student who made the call was used as criterion to classify him by telephone as "white".  The People's Trail Hut is available at a daily tariff of R30 per person, while other overnight accommodation on the mountain costs R800 per person.

According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, it is alarming to see that the state's obsession with race is now manifesting itself in student accommodation at a national asset such as Table Mountain, that is supposed to belong to everybody in the country.  "Youths who only started their school careers during the new dispensation, are in effect now being treated on Table Mountain as second class citizens because of the colour of their skin," Kriel added.

Kriel emphasised that it would be a blunder to try and justify the racial discrimination against the "white" students by using the hackneyed argument that this is an effort to eradicate inequalities and to make Table Mountain more accessible to all.  "No inequalities can be eradicated with racial prescriptions on Table Mountain, as a "black" millionaire's children will now be able to make use of the student accommodation, while indigent students from other communities are being refused," Kriel said.  "The eradication of inequalities according to Kriel unfortunately has become a smokescreen for the promotion of racial ideology."

AfriForum would like to ensure that Table Mountain will truly become accessible to all and therefore proposes that income level is a better criterion than race to determine who will qualify for more affordable accommodation on Table Mountain.  A great number of the people who will then benefit from this arrangement, will probably still be "black", but according to Kriel, they will then benefit based on need, not race, while the indigent from other communities will also not be excluded.

*Kallie Kriel is CEO of AfriForum