The Boland town of Worcester is as divided as ever.=20 But the local government elections could change all=20 of that, reports Gaye Davis=20
WORCESTER’S Durban Street once drew the line=20 between the Boland town’s white and coloured areas.=20 Now town clerk Neels de Bruyn talks about an=20 “integrated town” — with its black township,=20 Zwelethemba, given the “suburb” status — but the=20 distinctions remain sharp.=20
In white Worcester, syringa trees blossom outside=20 elegant homes. In the coloured areas, working-class=20 families are crammed into crumbling tenements. In=20 Zwelethemba, roads are unpaved and two squatter=20 camps proclaim the lack of housing.=20
A lone Freedom Front poster urging “Register Now!”=20 is the only sign of pending local government=20 elections as one approaches the town, though=20 registration closed a week ago. Yet, if the=20 inequities which make Durban Street as much a=20 divide as it ever was are to be addressed, the poll=20 is crucial.=20
For the African National Congress, Worcester is one=20 of 13 Western Cape towns where it has a real chance=20 of winning control of the local council and=20 breaking what candidate Clarence Johnson (40)=20 describes as “the Boeremafia’s stranglehold on=20 development”. A former South African Students’=20 Organisation activist, Johnson spent nearly a year=20 on trial before being acquitted of terrorism=20 charges in 1979; now he’s a surveyor with the=20 Department of Water Affairs, to be found after=20 hours canvassing door to door in coloured working=20 class areas.=20
One of them is “Chessies”, derived from “ice- chests”, which is what the houses were dubbed when=20 people first moved in. Another is Oues van Dae,=20 municipal housing for the elderly, now in stinking=20 disrepair. Here live Annie and Afrika Caesar, on=20 his pension and the small weekly wage their=20 daughter gets as a cutter at the Rainbow Chicken=20 factory. Seven people in all, housed in a single=20 room and under a lean-to. The Caesars’ votes will=20 go to the ANC: they’ve watched their neighbours’=20 homes being fixed under a council upgrading scheme=20 and know their turn is coming.=20
The town has been split into 10 wards, while a=20 further seven seats will be awarded on the basis of=20 proportional representation (PR), depending on the=20 percentage of the vote parties win. The FF,=20 Democratic Party, Pan African Congress and African=20 Christian Democratic Party have all fielded=20 candidates and there are a couple of independents=20 backed by the Worcester Civic Rights Organisation,=20 but most people agree the fight is between the NP=20 and the ANC.=20
There are 26 candidates for the wards.=20 Zwelethemba’s 6 569 voters decide five; the other=20 five seats will be chosen by the more than 26 000=20 residents of the coloured and white areas. The=20 50/50 deal, struck during negotations, suits the NP=20 in regions like the Transvaal, with towns with=20 white minorities and huge black townships – but=20 here, it can work to the ANC’s advantage.=20
“We’re just having to work that much harder,” says=20 NP candidate Werner Schwella, a party organiser=20 since he left the air force in 1985. “The ANC’s=20 basically already got five wards. If we win the=20 other five, it’s nil-nil – control of the council=20 will depend on the PR seats.”=20
While some 95 percent of voters are said to have=20 been registered in Worcester, it’s doubtful=20 people’s understanding of the process matches up.=20 Says ANC candidate Johnson: “People aren’t clear=20 why, if they vote for me, they must vote a second=20 time for the ANC. The whole issue of proportional=20 representation is unclear to voters.”=20
The NP intends capitalising on the confusion, and=20 is hoping the ANC won’t be able to get across to=20 Zwelethemba residents the need for them to vote for=20 it as a party in an area where four candidates, all=20 ANC, are unopposed, which in itself means little=20 interest will be whipped up around the poll.=20
Residents of Thembile Chole’s Zwelethemba ward will=20 vote on two ballots – white for the candidate,=20 yellow for the party. His opponent is a white woman=20 from the ACDP (“I haven’t met her but she’s asking=20 people how they can vote for the ANC when it backs=20 abortion”). Chole, a schoolteacher, feels she poses=20 less of a threat than the voting process itself -=20 and people’s apathy.=20
“People aren’t really interested. They’re saying=20 they see nothing they voted for last time. And the=20 youth, who were in the forefront of the struggle,=20 have taken a back seat. We have to explain that the=20 people up there have been busy changing policy and=20 that you can’t correct imbalances built up over=20 years in so short a time.=20
Attorney Riyahd Williams (42), ANC member and mayor=20 of the transitional local council, is more=20 confident. “We’re focusing on house visits rather=20 than meetings and we’re finding a turnabout from NP=20 support, ” he says. “Though the transitional=20 council’s split equally between statutory and non- statutory members, people see it as led by the ANC,=20 and to a degree we’ve been able to deliver.”=20
Town clerk De Bruyn, returning officer for the=20 poll, says the bulk of the town’s R96-million=20 budget for this year comprised R50-million for=20 development: a self-help housing scheme, money for=20 improving infrastructure in disadvantaged areas.=20 “You could say it’s already an RDP budget,” he=20
But Williams says voter-education programmes have=20 been “barely adequate”, while a recent municipal=20 workers’ strike which saw the trashing of High=20 Street — and earned him death threats – has given=20 the NP a stick to beat the party with. Says=20 Schwella: “We’ll be focusing broadly on the=20 mistakes the ANC has made and which they try and=20 blame on apartheid.”=20
Across the road from the ANC’s Durban Street=20 office, where administrator Harris Sibeko oversees=20 a continual stream of visitors and faxes, is the=20 Good Hope Bar.=20
In a town where jobs are scarce, where the average=20 wage is about R250 a week and most families rely on=20 one breadwinner, its name cruelly mocks those who=20 frequent it to blot out their despair.=20
For people like Sibeko, Williams, Johnson and=20 Chole, local government elections are about=20 changing that – and giving people confidence in the=20 future. “But first,” says Sibeko, “we have to crush=20 the NP.”=20