What I learned from “Joe”

The summer of 2007, I visited Johannesburg, South Africa and I learned a couple of things from “Joe.”  The first thing that I learned upon arriving in Johannesburg was that the warnings about crime were not exaggerated, but beyond this I learned quite a few things from Joe. 

Joe was our driver while we were visiting the city.  Our gated hotel, the Peech, recommended using a driver and Joe, a native South African, was a contracted driver for the hotel.  Interestingly, only after the end of apartheid was he allowed to operate his self-employed business in Melrose. 

So, unlike universities in the United States and Europe, access to the University of Wits is controlled by security.  I asked Joe, “so, we have to go through security to get to the University.”  Joe explained that there had been many campus crimes, including crimes involving vehicles.

When Joe was younger, we was not even allowed to attend the University of Wits.  There were very few schools for blacks and those schools were inferior.

As Joe was driving us around, I kept seeing signs, offering to help people who have been black listed.  My thoughts were that this related to apartheid … people who targeted by the previous system of government, but no.  Being black listed refers to people who are equivalent to being bankrupted.  After the end of apartheid, the government was wrong-headed in providing loans to almost anyone who wanted them.  The result, people could not make their loan payments and defaulted.

While Joe was driving us around, he told us that he lived in Soweto.  I learned that Soweto is diverse, but there is a lot of black on black crime and that there is a lot of envy among residents in the area who believe that some people are uppity and deserve “to lose” their property.

While Joe readily acknowledged the problems and lingering effects of apartheid, he also recognized the work that he and fellow South Africans must do to continue healing their country.  I probably learned much more riding with Joe than any other encounters.