From Groot Trek to Groot Whine: The ironic push for Cape secession

My mother, who was born in Cape Town, used to say you get two types ofKapenaars– those who leave (and seldom come back) and those who stay rooted to the spot, convinced they have secured a corner of paradise. The latter believe “the world ends at the Hex River Valley” was her scathing assessment of them. My aunt, her sister, was one of those.

She and my uncle once planned a trip up to the then Natal, going via the Garden Route… quite an adventure from their flat in Tamboerskloof. They got as far as Betty’s Bay, an hour or so out of Cape Town, when one of them asked the other whether the front door was locked when they left. They couldn’t say for sure – so they went back… and that was where their Grand Tour ended.

Cape Town people – at least those in white society my mother was familiar with – were, to my mother’s mind, insular and cliquey. That’s a complaint you still hear from those who “semigrate” from Joburg and find it difficult to fit in. And that’s not counting how professional black people feel when they are excluded from the cliques… it may be subtle, it may be well disguised, but it is still racism on the part of those who believe the Western Cape belongs to them.

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Now that Donald Trump has given the green light of respectability to all manner of fascists and racists, the“Cape independence” lobbyis making more and more noise. That noise, by the way, contrasts starkly with the reality the vocal leaders of the cult ignore: when they put their vision of nirvana to voters in the Western Cape in the 2024 election,they garnered 0.71% of the vote. Let that sink in: less than one person in every 100 who voted in the province believes it should become its own country.

More and more Afrikaners are eyeing the Western Cape as the anchor for theirVolkstaat. Don’t kid yourselves – Ernst Roets, Kallie Kriel et al are angling for a place they can call home where they – white people, although possibly you’d have to include theEngelsmanin that – will still call the shots, as they did when the shone shine benevolently on Hendrik Verwoerd’s apartheid creation.

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