Unapologetically and proudly Capetonian

The Big Read I resent Gautengers who come here regularly, labelling Cape Town an un-African city. When I ask them what they mean, they invariably say there are too many coloured and white people here and that they rarely see Africans. Such comments immediately exclude coloured, white and Indian people from the category African.

These very commentators would deny that their utterances sound Jimmy Manyi-like, yet their sentiments are the same. Like poet Stephen Watson, I acknowledge, proudly that Cape Town "is not an African city; it's much more complex, and interesting, than that blanketing term permits. (For one thing, it's always been a coloured, or Creole, city)."

Such statements deny that coloured and white people are South Africans and that they have a right to exist and that they belong here just as Indians and Zulu-speakers are plentiful in KwaZulu-Natal, and Xhosa-speakers in the Eastern Cape, and Sotho speakers in Northwest, Mpumalanga.

Second, they deny the history of the indigenous Khoi and San, our ancestors, who fought valiant struggles against the colonists - very few know that Autshumao was Robben Island's first political prisoner. He fought against Jan van Riebeeck and was subsequently banished to the island.

He was also the only political prisoner to escape from Robben Island - which means he could swim, contrary to the stereotype. Third, they deny the history of slavery and slave revolts against their masters in the Cape.

Fourth, they deny the history of influx control and the migrant labour laws that kept indigenous Africans out of Cape Town, job reservation and the coloured labour preference policy that gave job preferences to coloured people, and the Group Areas Act that forcibly removed coloured people from places of birth.

Fifth, they deny all of these things are South African and that they have shaped profoundly where people live, who they are, what they like, who they marry, who their neighbours are and where they choose to go to school.

Lastly they deny that many great resistance movements started here - such as the African People's Organisation, the broad non-racial non-nationalist United Democratic Front, and many more.

I am unapologetically a Capetonian. I was born in Canon Street in District 6; my parents lived their entire young lives there. My paternal grandfather, Clements Kadalie, was a Malawian. My grandmother, Molly Davids was a Malay slave descendant.

My maternal grandfather was white and married a rural coloured woman.

District 6 exemplifies the contempt the ANC has for coloured people - here restitution has been placed in the hands of a self-appointed group of activists who have held government to ransom in all kinds of ways. There has never been a dedicated budget for restitution and redevelopment. The claims process has been everything but transparent.

Yesterday, I asked a foreigner who has settled here, why he chose Cape Town. This was his response: Pretoria, the administrative capital, is dull compared to Cape Town, its legislative counterpart. Relative to other provinces, it is better governed, has a sense of orderliness and good governance, despite development challenges. Cape Town provides quality of life, a lively cultural core and a lively performing arts culture. It is also a city of design and architecture. More importantly, it is the centre of opposition, and encourages opposition. That can only be good for democracy and tolerance.

• This is an edited version of a presentation delivered at the Cape Town Festival One City, Many Cultures Discussion "My Cape Town, Your Cape Town, Our Cape Town"