1997 Cape Town: A contrast

During our stay we are stationed at Timour Hall, the international police association in Cape Town. They say its for our own protection. In a country that has recently supposedly escaped Apartheid, its a strange choice for our visit. Notwithstanding that, all delegates are living here during our stay.

One day I opted for a walk on my own, outside the grounds, and was quickly talked out of it by a guard on the gates. The street looked quiet and safe enough, but he assured me, danger was lurking.

Cape Town is the second stop in our whirlwind tour of cricketing nations as we work to establish the world blind cricket council.

We first visited India, and soon we will be off to England.

I was born and bred in Sydney. It could have easily have been Capetown. This harbour city is very much like home. The beach culture, out door dining, climate, stunning scenery all mimic Sydney. You then venture away from the city into the wine country and you could be in the vineyards of South Australia.

Then you visit a shanty town, or more correctly an informal settlement. And its like nothing you’ve ever seen before. These relics from the apartheid era are a reminder of how segregation is one of human kind’s cruelest traits. Hitler did it to the Jews in the 1930s when he crated the slums of Poland, and the South Africans did it to the native South African people of colour in the 1980s. Its as heartbreaking as our visit to Agra.

Again our humble offerings are well received but a drop in the ocean to a people forgotten, lost in poverty as the world goes about its business.

As well as delegates trying to establish blind cricket on the world’s stage, the opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture of he country you are visiting is always welcome.

We meet with the Australian Ambassador to South Africa and hold meetings with other delegates, as well as squeeze in a few days sight seeing. Our meetings go well and all is in readiness for further meetings in England.

We are treated to a trip to Robben Island. I say treat, as most people who visited in the past were on their way to years of incarceration. Thankfully, we were simply visiting as the jail had closed down years before. Robben Island is made famous for one particular inmate, Nelson Mandela.

The island was essentially a jail and leper colony. As we visit we are shown Madela’s cell, where he lived for 18 years of his 27 year sentece. We saw where he exercised. We also walk the grounds, which are essentially mass graves for thousands of people who died on the island, mostly from leprosy. Its an informative and interesting tour of this UNESCO site.