Jaspreet Kindra
The word has been passed around in the hijacking circles of Alexandra that Democratic Party MP Vincent Gore’s car is not “hot” it is fitted to enable a disabled person to drive it.
Gore grins when he talks about his “unofficial meeting” with the Alex hijackers he is attempting to rehabilitate. He was hijacked several times before the meeting was arranged and was shot at during student unrest in the area last year.
The 28-year-old trained engineer, who became wheelchair-bound in 1996 after a car accident, strikes an odd figure manoeuvring his white Camry down the narrow Alexandra roads.
Alexandra resident and Democratic Alliance councillor Liz Phephenyane says she is constantly surprised by this man from Sandton appearing on the other side of the M1 highway. He knows the streets of Alexandra like the back of his hand.
“He is not scared like Alan Fuchs [the DA ward councillor for the area], though Fuchs is getting better now,” says Phephenyane, who defected from the African National Congress to the DA last year.
Despite being based in Cape Town, Gore visits Alexandra at least twice a month. He asked his party if he could have Alex as his constituency after the 1999 elections.
Watching him out in the blazing sun speaking to residents moved to a transit camp after being evicted from the banks of the Jukskei river, it is soon obvious his task is greater than those of his colleagues who represent areas like Bishopscourt, Houghton and Morningside.
His white face soon turns dangerously pink while he listens patiently to the residents’ list of grievances no water, the mobile toilets are not cleaned regularly, inadequate refuse removal facilities and a woman notices that Gore is in danger of getting seriously sunburnt. She creeps up quietly behind him and raises an umbrella to shield him.
Gore’s face breaks into a sheepish smile and he says: “This is what I like about Alexandra and this what Alexandra has taught me humility. You won’t find this sense of community in Sandton, where I have lived for more than 23 years. I don’t even know who my neighbour is.”
He has already checked in to see residents twice this month. Gore says he is trying to build bridges between the two communities on either side of the M1 to Pretoria, something he has been passionate about since his days as an undergraduate at the University of the Witwatersrand.
He has got interactive projects under way between the affluent schools in Sandton and those in Alexandra. He says there are plans to start a small-scale entrepreneur-training centre. He points out a building earmarked for the purpose in the industrial section of the former township.
The DA increased its support base in Alexandra to almost 8% in the last local government election and therein lies the challenge for Gore. There is scope for growth for the DA here, whereas in affluent suburbs the party’s membership has reached saturation point. The party has already established two branches in the area.
Gore claims that the more than 50% stay-away verdict from the voters in last year’s municipal elections has posed a challenge to the party. “We have to bring in those disenchanted voters,” he explains.
So would he like to move to Alexandra to know what it is like for his constituents to live there?
He replies without hesitation: “I have been toying with the idea for some months now. If I wasn’t in a wheelchair, I wouldn’t have given it a second thought.”