Infecting the City

Ruth Simbao |  Art South Africa : February, the orange and black cockroach logo was seen in Cape Town’s CBD, signalling Spier’s performance festival, Infecting the City, with its pertinent theme “Home Affairs”.
In November last year, Jason Mkhwane, chairman of the ANC Youth League’s Sedibeng branch, told Al Jazeera, “When you see a cockroach in your house what do you do to it? You kill it.” South Africans are all too familiar with the fumigator tactics of politicians who insist that the labels “cockroaches”, “dogs” and “snakes” are metaphoric and do not amount to hate speech, despite the use of the term “cockroach” in Rwanda.

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Simbao, Ruth.  Infecting the City. Art South Africa.  Art South Africa, Vol 7.4, June 2009.