The 71st Episode : Apartheid
[October, 1996 South Africa]
Our customer attended me for dinner and drinking after that every day. They gave a drive to go back to the hotel 11 p.m. ~ 12:00 a.m. On the arrival they definitely said “Don’t go out alone until I come tomorrow morning!” Because the security was very bad. If I returned the hotel early in the evening I might go out again alone, that they worried. So they attended me till late. As it was very dark around the hotel I didn’t intend to go out though.
It was still only 2 years since the apartheid was finished in 1994, that was controlled by the white people of only 15% of the population. The actual circumstance was not changed so easily. My senior visited some years ago, when the apartheid was put in force. He told me there put a board at the entrance of his stayed hotel saying “White only except Japanese”. It added to his anxiety and fear.
When our customer parked a car at restaurants and shopping malls they always paid attention locking the steering and removing the audio panel even in the day time.
