(Nothing like some cold hard facts to drive home the message that the Coloured community really is in need of some decisive action. With the launch of SAME and the pursuit of targeted state media for Coloured South Africans, perhaps these and other serious matters can be put under intense scrutiny and the community can be given the space to find its solutions. This article from IOL. - Ed)

Members of the so-called coloured population are incarcerated at a rate almost double that of their black compatriots, says the South African Institute of Race Relations.

Evidence suggested the higher prison rate could be attributed to the prevalence of gangsterism, alcohol and drug abuse among this group, the institute said in a statement yesterday.

"In October 2007, some 80% of the South African prison population was made up of Africans, who also made up 79% of the entire South African population," the institute said.

This is your invite to attend the launch of the small non-profit community organisation with an amazing story and BIG PLANS! Be informed, be attended, be amazed...JUST BE THERE!!!

The launch of SAME - The South African Movement for Equality

Date:     29 November 2008

Time:    18:30

Venue:   Harvesttime Dome, Claremont, Johannesburg!

Donation:   Minimum donation of R20 required. Tickets on sale at the door or call Abigail - 0729052612 or Jeanine - 0845090099 to get hooked up now and confirm your attendance.

Harvesttime Dome is off Ontdekkers/Main Rd, in Claremont. Please do not hesitate to call the numbers provided for directions. SEE YOU THERE!!!

Join us for an evening of information and entertainment. Be informed, enlightened and have your ideas about community initiatives changed forever! SAME is a non-political, non-racial organisation with VERY BIG PLANS. The organisation has been operating as a sSection 21 for over 18 months now and you're now invited to its first public launch featuring some of South Africa's most amazing artists and performers.

Getting off the fence has never been this easy...just get a ticket, bring your friends and  be a part of it!

This slightly old (1999) article by a visiting US academic to Cape Town provides some pleasant insight into her experiences in Cape Town. Have things changed substantially since 1999 when this piece was written? Your comments please... - Ed

We have the phenomenon that in most countries, and especially in South Africa, the Mulatto, or hybrid, is ostracized by the whites as well as by the non-White group. He [she] is truly the step- child of our civilization and society. Whether it should be so is not at issue. The actual position is that his [her] fate is a sad one and that he [she] has no decent opportunity. He [she] falls in between two worlds, both of which refuse to accept him [her] because he [she] belongs to neither of them.
    Dr. Ben Marais, Colour: The Unsolved Problem of the West (1955)

It is six months to the day since I returned from my second visit to South Africa and my first trip to Cape Town, definitely the most beautiful-ugly place I have ever been. Richard Rive,author, scholar and former resident of District Six, an area of Cape Town I will refer to later, describes 'its livid scars (as) ...a testimony to racial arrogance and greed, and the treatment its people received is still resented everywhere'. In 'Passing Through...', it is this twisted tale of White greed and arrogance and Black and 'Coloured' resentment which exist cheek by jowl that I will only begin to recapture as interwoven anecdotal personal snapshots and anthropological/sociological/historical inserts: