Waiting on Cape Town in the apartheid era: life histories of Indian waiters and barmen

Academic scholarship has neglected histories of waiters and barmen in South Africa, and the very small literature on the hotel industry neglects its work force. This article aims to address this omission by focussing on the life histories of five Indian men in Cape Town who worked during the apartheid era, a time of forced removals, job reservation and segregation in all aspects of life. The article especially links the racialized residential space with the work space of the hotel in the white space of the city and highlights the contradictions these produced. It explores themes such as entry into the sector, the meaning and nature of the work, the idea of stigma, work as performance and customer-waiter conversations. While this sector is often presented as servile and lacking skill, through these male narratives we see representations of power, skill, creativity and pride. Through the life history method we are able to draw comparisons between work in this sector and other sectors such as retail sales and proprietorship. There are differences in the stories told. In some the hand of apartheid is heavy and stifling, while in others there is a clever navigation through these times.