PRETORIA, 7 September 2003 — South Africa — after Zimbabwe — is a dream and a nightmare. Where Harare is crumbling and hungry, Pretoria is shiny and gleaming with every food and type of goods the consumer’s imagination could conjure up.
There are street signs at every corner, unlike Harare, whose signs vanished a few years ago, stolen to be melted down for scrap. Pretoria’s roads bristle with new cars of every make: Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, Range Rover. But alongside the profusion of wealth is poverty and fear. There is a constant dread, a fear of violent crime at the back of everyone’s mind here, both black and white.
This month Pretoria has been shocked by several horrific crimes. A baby and its mother and grandmother were shot to death after their vehicle was carjacked. A man who visited his wife in hospital was carjacked in the car park and later shot dead.
Within 24-hours of President Thabo Mbeki saying crime was decreasing and the problem was really one of perception, his spokesman Bheki Khumalo was robbed of his car by four armed men who left him behind, happy to be alive. This month burglars robbed the homes of three Cabinet ministers in one of the capital’s most tightly guarded compounds.
A Zimbabwean friend commented: “It’s weird. In Zimbabwe you are afraid of the police but not so much of ordinary crime. In South Africa you are not afraid of the police but you are afraid of the people.”
This fear means that people are generally on guard. A great deal of Pretoria life focuses on shopping malls, where parking is guarded and one can stroll around in a closed, safe environment.
Mall life emphasizes the materialism and consumerism that is overpowering in South Africa. It seems people are saying: “The crime is scary, but look what I can buy.”
The difference in racial balance from Harare is striking. There I was surrounded by black people; in Pretoria I often find myself surrounded by whites. This is partly because the old economic and social walls are just beginning to break down, partly because there are many more white people in South Africa, proportionally and absolutely: About 10 percent of South Africa’s 44 million people, less than 1 percent of the Zimbabwe’s 13 million.
Black South Africans are moving up the socioeconomic ladder and many are avidly acquiring the accoutrements the white population enjoys — cars, swimming pools, designer clothes, jewelry, surround-sound home theater systems. Their upward mobility is hindered by the legacy of apartheid education but they are determined to get their share of the fabulous wealth so ostentatiously on show.
When I arrived in Pretoria a few weeks ago I discovered that the city has another name: Tshwane. “Welcome to Pretoria Tshwane metropolitan area,” the sign at the bus station says.
