It’s A-1 Grand Prix time here in Durban. They’ve just finished building this track around large bits of public land on the beachfront, officially recognising what we knew all along – that public highways double rather nicely as racing circuits. Thing is, the A-1 is right outside peoples’ homes. They can’t get in because the entrances to their apartment buildings lie within the race perimeter. The police have helpfully suggested that they should buy tickets to the races, which will allow them unimpeded access to their bedrooms. Of course, all this private inconvenience is being justified in the name of the public good – mirroring a recent supreme court ruling in the US, to which activists have cleverly responded by petitioning for the demolition of the house of a supreme court judge, so that a leisure complex might be built there. I’m not sure what the response should be in South Africa. Building a racetrack around Tokyo Sexwale’s house is likely futile – I suspect he’s already got one.
Website of author, film-maker and academic, Raj Patel