South Africa’s beautiful beaches have an ugly problem of racial exclusion and privatization

Beaches in South Africa have “an ugly problem of racial exclusion and privatization,” Lynsey Chutel writes in Quartz. “On Dec. 26, a private security company forcibly cleared people off Clifton’s fourth beach, a public area. It quickly became a racially charged issue. The company was hired by business owners on the strip who claim crime has risen in the area. To anyone being shooed away from a public beach, this was seen as an attempt as the wealthy trying to privatize a public space. Like healthcare, education and housing, security has also been privatized in South Africa building even higher walls in an already divided country. Crime is already a public conversation tinged with racism in South Africa.”