Premiering at Sheffield DocFest, Mother City tells the powerful story of activist group Reclaim the City and their plight to dismantle spatial apartheid in Cape Town, South Africa. Filmed over six years, directors Miki Redelinghuys and Pearlie Joubert capture the haunting reality of the inhumane conditions minority domestic workers face. Nicole Collins met up with the film’s narrator, Nkosikhona (Face) Swartbooi, to talk about housing issues and Cape Town.
“Don’t just give pity to the people there, but also to the ones in your country, in your contexts,” Swartbooi said when asked about public help outside of South Africa. “Ask yourself, what good does your privilege serve?”
Mother City focuses on a piece of land which was identified as suitable for affordable social housing specifically to cater to the workers of the city of Cape Town.
“We felt that it was a shame, as we’ve not seen a single affordable social housing unit built since the dawn of democracy 30 years ago.” says Swartbooi, “Something that needed to be addressed was everything else that has been happening in relation: the evictions that are taking place, the spaces where black and brown people are being evicted onto – the peripheries, which are created to make space for big businesses to come and have fancy hotels and all those developments. Yet, on these peripheries, it’s unaffordable for black and brown people to actually have a unit that they can rent because private accommodation is expensive in Cape Town.”
“So, the story investigates that, but at its core, it investigates how to de-segregate and create a more just and equal society in Cape Town. Cape Town has been declared the most unequal society in the world. We have that to deal with apartheid and its legacy.”
Director Pearlie Joubert explained that every year the Cape Town mayor would ceremonially open the Encounters South African International Documentary Fesitval, but for the first time in 21 years, the current mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, withdrew.
The film heavily criticises the South African government, including its previous mayors Ian Neilson and Dan Plato, for their negligence in providing support to domestic workers. Joubert said: “We hope Mother City lands like a bomb explosion.”
Swartbooi went on to say, ‘Being here, with this platform – an international platform, with 300 films that have been shown and us being selected for the International Competition – it really has been an honour for us. For us to get a special mention as runners-up has been a pleasure.’
The film premiered in South Africa at the Encounters International Documentary Film Festival on Thursday 27 June.
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