Cape Town mayor visits Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): The mayor of Cape Town, William Bantom, is scheduled to arrive on Monday for a five-day visit, the Embassy of South Africa said in a statement.

Accompanied by Dan Plato, a member of the Cape Town City Council, Bantom will meet several city officials, including the governor and deputy governors of the capital, and representatives of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

His visit is expected to be a significant first step in reestablishing the close historical contact once enjoyed by the two cities. However, during the apartheid system Indonesia and South Africa had no formal ties.

The Cape of Good Hope was a provisioning station for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) beginning in 1652. Ships on their way to and from Batavia and other areas of the Indonesian archipelago regularly called at the post in Cape Town during the VOC's administration in the Indonesian archipelago, the statement said.

More significantly, Cape Town also became a place of abode for many transplanted Indonesians, often known as Cape Malays, who were sent to Cape Town as slaves or political exiles by the Dutch. The most famous of these is Sheikh Yusuf of Makassar, who was banished to Cape Town by the Dutch in 1694. Sheikh Yusuf credited with establishing Islam in the Cape.

Descending generations of the early Indonesian exiles have remained large and vibrant communities living mainly in the Cape Town area.