Basil Douglas has popped up in some unusual places, and now he has popped up to lead the `popcorn civics’, writes Gaye Davis
BASIL DOUGLAS, the man behind the rates protests which convulsed Johannesburg’s coloured townships last week, leaving one person dead and 28 injured after clashes with police, has had a chequered political career.
Douglas launched the South Western Joint Civic Association (Sowejoca) “about three weeks ago” — soon after a negotiated agreement was reached on the shape local government will take in the Central Witwatersrand region.
Sowejoca pulls together civics recently launched in south-western suburbs — dubbed “popcorn civics” by detractors because they’re popping up everywhere — whose common denominator is opposition to ANC-aligned civics represented on the Transvaal Metropolitan Council (TMC), which in October will replace city councils as the new local government body.
He says he resigned from the Pan Africanist Congress “about a year ago”, turning his back on sectarian politics so he could “focus on community issues”.
But PAC secretary general !Khoisan X (as Benny Alexander now wants to be known) told the Weekly Mail & Guardian Douglas was expelled from the organisation after allegedly assaulting a member of the Ennerdale branch leadership, where he was chairman. Douglas dismisses the allegation as “ridiculous”.
According to X, Douglas joined the PAC as a member of the Progressive Teachers’ Union, forerunner of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union. After being expelled he signed up with the Noordgesig branch of the PAC. When his expulsion emerged, he linked up with Malcolm Lupton, founder of the National Liberation Front, a coloured nationalist movement which campaigned for a coloured homeland.
Douglas said he was involved with the National Liberation Front “for about three weeks”, severing his connection on discovering it was a “racist” body. Lupton is in America and could not be contacted.
Willie Lucas, Ennerdale PAC branch chairman, claimed Douglas failed to appear before a disciplinary hearing in connection with the alleged assault. He cited a litany of allegations against Douglas, including the misappropriation of funds raised (“to this day he hasn’t given us the books”) and causing divisions within the community.
“Wherever he goes he causes trouble,” Lucas said. “He’s powerful — he’s a strong speaker — but the problem is he hasn’t got his priorities right. His agenda is to get power for himself.” He said no charges of assault were laid with police because “people were afraid of (Douglas)”.
Douglas retorted the allegations came from “manufacturers of untruth who should get a patent on lies”.
“You know why people are afraid of me? Because I’ve got the support, that’s why — because of my intellectual ability, oratory skills on stage, goodwill and support in the community and my willingness to take on the government at any time.” The Eldorado Park geography teacher is a former middleweight boxer — “but that shouldn’t give the impression I hit people”, he said.
But the PAC’s !Khoisan X believes Douglas is taking advantage of the very people he purports to serve. “He exploits a serious identity crisis in the community — people do not know where they stand, they feel like step-children in the new scheme of things,” X said.
Others question the timing of the protest, which saw areas become war zones as residents took to the streets demanding they be charged the same R45 flat rate for rates and services as Soweto residents. Criticism has also focused on the racist overtones of the campaign. Douglas says: “If they don’t give others what they got themselves it’s discrimination.”
Detractors say his support lies largely with “wayward youth”, explaining the blazing barricades, stoning and torching of community buildings which marked the protests. Douglas blames “criminal elements” for the violence.
He wants Sowejoca represented on the TMC. He cannot say how many affiliates it has nor give membership figures but claims “majority support”, saying existing civics are not “true representatives” of their communities as their political alignment alienates residents belonging to other parties.
Mobilising residents around long-standing, legitimate grievances such as high rents, Douglas put a spark to the tinder created by poverty, unemployment and an acute housing shortage. ANC-aligned civics tackled the same grievances, but would concede their leaders’ involvement in marathon local government negotiations may have distanced their support base.
What makes Douglas’ motives questionable is that frameworks for resolving grievances are in place.
The Johannesburg City Council has imposed moratoriums on legal action against tenants in arrears or illegally occupying houses. Roger McCulloch, assistant general secretary of the Civic Associations of Johannesburg (CAJ), says the TMC will write off more than R44-million owing in arrears once it is installed.
Douglas asserts the moratoriums are “on paper only”. While true that letters sent by the council in August to tenants in arrears made the error of threatening legal action, this was explained to Douglas by council officials who said new letters would be sent; legal action against defaulters has in fact been halted.
Sowejoca wants mini-elections to test civics’ support. CAJ’s McCulloch agrees that civics will have to become “true apolitical vehicles of civil society”. But Vic Milne, chief executive officer of the Transvaal Metropolitan Chamber, says the Local Government Transition Act precludes this. The wheat will only be sorted from the chaff with local government elections in October 1995.