‘Infiltration’ of Whites-Only Areas Under Fire in S. Africa

Carol Burmeister and her friend Anne Greenwell share a house in a tiny, well-to-do suburb that rises steeply into the mountains on the edge of Cape Town.

They can see the Atlantic Ocean from their back-yard swimming pool. Out the front door is the craggy face of Table Mountain. And just next door is a very snoopy neighbor.

The neighbor complains about the smoke from their back-yard grill, the barking of their cocker spaniels--and the color of Carol Burmeister’s skin.

Burmeister is a Colored, a person of mixed race, living in a whites-only area. That didn’t matter much until a few weeks ago, when the South African government made clear that it planned to crack down on what it calls the “uncontrolled infiltration” of white areas.

Now the neighbor’s complaints carry extra force down at police headquarters, the authorities have come around asking questions and Burmeister, a graphics designer, may soon be forced to leave.

For several years, the South African government has ignored most violations of the Group Areas Act, which divides the country into separate living districts by race. In that time more than 250,000 blacks, Colored and Indians have moved into areas reserved for whites with little fear of prosecution.

But that relaxed atmosphere has changed suddenly.

South Africa is putting teeth back into its housing segregation law, long a cornerstone of apartheid. The proposed amendments, now almost certain to become law, would remove the legal presumption of innocence for those accused and increase the fines and jail terms for those convicted.

They also would create Group Areas Act inspectors and empower the government to forcibly sell houses that are being occupied illegally.

The ‘Snooper Provision’

In a clause that some call the “snooper provision,” the complaint of one citizen, such as a neighbor, can land an occupant or a landlord in court.

“My neighbor is dangerous to me because I am black in a country ruled by rather inhuman whites,” said Burmeister, 36, who owns her own design company. “The new law encourages vindictiveness on the part of racists. And it gives my neighbor a tool to use against me.”

The new laws are an attempt to please both conservatives and liberals. In addition to stricter enforcement of the Group Areas Act, they will for the first time provide a way for some areas to become open to all races--if the state president approves.

But civil rights leaders say that will only legalize what is already in effect in a few white-designated areas, where blacks now outnumber whites. They are most concerned about the measures aimed at white residential areas, such as Burmeister’s suburb, where small numbers of wealthy blacks have moved in.

‘Safeguard Decent People’

Information Minister Stoffel van der Merwe said the government is only trying to “safeguard the interests of decent people” who want to live among their own race group. “It’s very much a policy of live and let live,” he said.

Van der Merwe said the new laws also will soothe white fears and make them more amenable to the government’s reform program. “As soon as people get insecure they become very resistant to reform,” Van der Merwe said.

In the last three years, the 3,100 investigations into alleged Group Areas violations resulted in only eight prosecutions and no evictions, according to government figures.

Government cases were made almost unwinnable by a 1982 court decision that said no one could be evicted under the Group Areas Act unless alternative housing were available. With a shortfall of 700,000 homes in South Africa’s black areas, such alternatives were rarely available.

Pressure From Both Sides

As more blacks moved into white areas, President Pieter W. Botha, head of the white minority-led government, came under increasing pressure from liberal whites and anti-apartheid groups to get rid of Group Areas.

On the other hand, the right-wing opposition Conservative Party, Botha’s greatest political threat, pushed for stricter enforcement.

The new measures have been sharply criticized by leading businessmen, lawyers and anti-apartheid groups, and some say opposition is strong even within Botha’s own National Party.

But the government seems unlikely to back away from the bills. The Indian and Colored houses of the tricameral Parliament are expected to reject the legislation in the coming weeks. The government says it will then simply refer the bills to the President’s Council, where Botha’s party holds a majority of the seats, to break the parliamentary deadlock and endorse the new law.

Foresees a ‘Disaster’

“By trying to please everybody, they please nobody. It’ll be a disaster,” predicted Tiaan van der Merwe, a liberal white member of Parliament. “We’ll soon have tens of thousands of people out on the streets. And not just poor people, but people with good jobs who live a stable existence.”

The Conservative Party contends that the government’s stricter law would still be too weak.

“It’s so basic to all of us,” said Moolman Mentz, a Conservative Party member of Parliament. “People want to live amongst their own kind. That has been there through the ages.”

Carol Burmeister doesn’t especially care whether she lives among whites or blacks. She just wants to live in a nice place that is near her job.

Wants Freedom of Choice

“If I want to live close to the mountain, then I have a right to live close to the mountain, not out on Mitchell’s Plain,” she said, referring to a barren stretch of salt flats 25 miles from Cape Town where the large townships for Coloreds and blacks are located.

“What’s important to me is my right to a freedom of choice, and I will live where my life style dictates,” she said.

Vredehoek, where Burmeister now lives, is a pretty community of winding streets and upper-middle-class homes. Its name means “peaceful corner” in Afrikaans. It is about 90% white, but that percentage has been dwindling, residents say.

Demand Raising Prices

The “graying” of white areas has been triggered by the severe housing shortage for blacks, who comprise 80% of South Africa’s population, and a housing surplus in areas designated for whites. Some liberal white businessmen trying to find homes for their senior black executives in areas legal for blacks have given up and bought houses for those employees in white areas.

Many government officials had expected the influx of blacks into white areas to depress housing prices, and the new law would reimburse white homeowners who leave when select areas are opened to all races. But, so far at least, the sheer pressure of demand--from blacks willing and able to pay premium prices--has driven up property values in urban white areas into which blacks are moving.

Burmeister’s home is a 10-minute drive from her business in downtown Cape Town. She has many white clients in her small operation, and she employs a young white woman as an assistant.

Burmeister, a defiant woman who speaks English with a high-tea accent, has been butting up against Pretoria’s 38-year-old Group Areas Act all her life. When she was 12, her family was among hundreds of people forced to move from a white area into a Colored township. She remembers that the government threatened to confiscate their household goods if they didn’t move. Her father, a boat builder, went along.

When she left home, she moved into a house owned by an Indian and located in a white area. She wasn’t bothered by the authorities, however, because a Colored area was just across the street.

Living Arrangement

When her friend, Anne Greenwell, 55, bought a two-bedroom house in Vredehoek two years ago, Burmeister moved in. They agreed that Burmeister would live rent-free if she took care of the house during Greenwell’s frequent visits to see her family in England.

The arrangement worked well until their next-door neighbor, an elderly woman who lives with her middle-aged son, began complaining. Burmeister and Greenwell knew the neighbor had complained about the previous owners as well, so they didn’t worry. But the previous occupants had been white.

A few weeks ago, a policeman leaped over their locked fence at 7:30 a.m. and rang the doorbell. He told Burmeister he had been sent to investigate a violation of the Group Areas Act and demanded to see her permission to live in a white area.

Burmeister produced a letter from Greenwell, describing Burmeister’s terms of employment. (Black employees of whites may live on their employer’s property with permission in white areas, although ordinarily they live in quarters that are separate from the main house.)

The policeman left but said he was opening a file on the case, a prelude to prosecution when the new laws pass.

‘Civil Disobedience’

“I know I don’t have a leg to stand on,” Greenwell said recently, sipping a cup of tea in her living room. “But I don’t recognize the law. I’m afraid this is civil disobedience.”

The new Group Areas Act amendment would empower the government to sell Greenwell’s house, and both women could be fined $4,300 and jailed for five years. If convicted, Burmeister would be evicted even before her appeal is heard.

Greenwell, a quiet woman with a strong sense of propriety, has been active in liberal causes and was arrested recently at an anti-apartheid protest march organized by Black Sash, a predominantly white group of women activists.

“In many places, even in this community, Coloreds have been living without any problems,” Greenwell said. “But things are changing now. The government is tightening up. Now, it just depends entirely on your neighbor.”