The Cape Caves In

In the bitter racial climate of South Africa, Cape Town (pop. 385,000) is an island of tolerance. In the city's buses white and black ride together. There is no segregation at city hall concerts or at public libraries. Of the 45 city councilmen, six are nonwhite. Last year, at the direction of Nationalist Prime Minister Strydom, the provincial government passed a law giving the local governor power to impose apartheid on reluctant urban communities and bill them for its cost. Cape Town ignored the ordinance.

Last month the city council got a sharp letter from the government listing "complaints" allegedly made by visitors shocked by the lack of segregated facilities in Cape Town and insisting on apartheid. Grudgingly, the city ran a few trial Jim Crow buses and set up a Jim Crow public toilet on a main street. Protested a nonwhite city councilman: "Why do we do these terrible things at the mere hint of pressure from the Nationalists?" Last week the pressure became more than a hint. In the face of new threats from the provincial governor to act if the city did not, Cape Town's white councilmen regretfully capitulated, reluctantly started work on the segregation of park benches and city beaches and banned nonwhites from the city auditorium.

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