ANC Youth League president Julius Malema became a hero for the residents of the Stjwetla informal settlement in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, when he brought government leaders to listen to community members’ grievances on Sunday.
A lack of housing was the main grievance at the meeting. Malema was accompanied by human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale, Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane and Gauteng housing minister Humphrey Mmemezi and Gauteng youth league chairperson Lebogang Maile.
The meeting was used as part of the ANC’s election campaign. Malema had visited Alexandra a week ago and undertook to bring government leaders to respond to problems.
Malema and Sexwale tour Stjwetla on Sunday. (Oupa Nkosi, M&G)
Resident after resident had the lack of housing on their lists of concerns. Most of them complained about houses the provincial housing department confirmed had been built and were supposed to have been handed over to the beneficiaries years ago.
The Stjwetla settlement — on the banks of the Jukskei River — does not have electricity or toilets and the shacks are regularly flooded, while some are swept away by the river. Recently an unidentified man was swept away by floodwaters and is yet to be found.
For the first time the ANC was seeking votes in a township where many of its struggle icons operated from during the apartheid era. The township is even nicknamed the “home of the ANC”, as party T-shirts declared on Sunday. Some residents however looked on as if they didn’t understand what was going on.
“i-ANC iyanicela bafowethu, asihambeni” [The ANC is begging you fellow brothers, let’s go], said a local ANC leader who was helping to mobilise residents to converge in Stjwetla.
‘This place is not for human settlement’
During the door-to-door campaign, ANC leaders, their security personnel and journalists squeezed through tiny passages between one-roomed shacks and stepped over cooking fires on the river bank.
Malema told the media he felt the pain of Stjwetla residents. “We come here as a sign of acknowledgement that something needs to be done. This place is not for human settlement. It should be turned into a park because it’s next to the river”.
He told residents that efforts to move them to habitable places had been frustrated by councillors who used them for their own agendas.
“The problem is that when we try to move you, there are people who call themselves your leaders, who tell you to refuse. They are not your leaders, they steal your money.”
An ANC supporter makes merry in Alexandra on Sunday. (Oupa Nkosi, M&G)
Sexwale praised Malema for inviting him and other government leaders to address the residents’ concerns.
“We applaud the fact that we’ve got vigilant and active youth,” he said after the door-to-door campaign.
“I demand from Mr Malema not just to bring me here, I want the hands of the youth to build with us,” said Sexwale.
The minister refused to put a time-frame on promises to provide better housing for Stjwetla residents. “I don’t make promises, I develop.”
Sexwale pledged R90-million from his department to develop Alexandra, with a portion of that money being used to relocate Stjwetla residents to new houses.
‘I come from this place, I know it’
In the midst of the meeting, Sexwale undertook some electioneering, saying: “I come from this place, I know it. Comrades we are not going to turn our backs on you. On the 18th we are going to elect councillors who are servants of the people and not the boss of the people,” Sexwale said to a loud applause.
While the crowd more than filled a marquee, only about a quarter of the over-populated Alexandra attended.
One resident told ANC leaders that Stjwetla was no different from a pigsty. “This place looks like a home for pigs. When I come back from work I find these suits of mine wet,” he said, pointing to his worn-out suit.
Michael Ngobeni, another Stjwetla resident, had three copies of a memorandum ready: one for Malema, Sexwale and Mokonyane. He demanded they ensure that residents who were robbed of their government-provided houses should be able to move into those houses as soon as possible.
Robbing beneficiaries of their houses is a common instance in many poor townships, but it is rife in Alexandra. It’s alleged that some councilors are involved in selling houses to those who want to get homes quicker and can afford to pay a few thousand rand. Government does not require beneficiaries to pay for low-cost houses, commonly known as RDPs [reconstruction and development programme].
One man who obviously had had enough of knocking on government offices doors named and shamed a few officials who had reneged on their promises to help residents get to the bottom of what happened to their houses which were built for them, but were given to different people. “I spoke to Edwin at the housing department here in Johannesburg. I also spoke to Maxwell Khoza from Mr Sexwale’s office. They both promised to help us, but none of them did”.
He continued: “I live in a shack, where is my house that you say was approved and built?”
Several residents complained about the absence of outgoing councillor Mirriam Makhubela. They said Makhubela had not come to Stjwetla to address residents’ concerns even when she had been invited. Some residents alleged she had never visited the settlement.
Some residents were sarcastic, taking aim at Sexwale: “Empeleni lezindlu zithengwa ngamalini?” [How much do these houses cost?].
“Now that you’re here Mr Sexwale, maybe you can show us a quicker way of gaining access to government houses,” said resident Margaret Mahlangu.
More land, new houses
Mokonyane admitted the problems of Stjwetla were “not new” and promised residents that land was being prepared to build houses in Linbro Park, Bohlabela Extension and Lombardy West. Mokonyane said the Gauteng government planned to spend R12-million on land in these areas for the people of Stjwetla and Alexandra.
They will all then be moved to the new areas before Stjwetla is turned into a park.
Mokonyane was in charge of the Alexandra renewal programme when she was housing minister in Gauteng. When the government was moving Stjwetla residents to proper housing, others arrived to take over the vacant land or occupy shacks that previous owners had not removed.
The leaders pleaded with residents to stop selling their houses and returning to the squatter camp or renting shacks once they moved into proper houses.
The streets of Stjwetla are filled with dirty water and faeces in some parts. Residents have a way of explaining this: “How can you teach someone to use a toilet when they don’t have one? It’s useless — we keep voting for people who play games with our lives”.
Rows of blue and yellow mobile toilets line the street that enters the settlement, but residents say they are not enough to serve the whole community.
The whole of Alexandra still needs more development, but Stjwetla is the worst part of the township. Alexandra has been a headache for all four ANC administrations, but addressing concerns of residents who live along the Jukskei River is proving to be more difficult than ever.
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