The article about Henrietta Mqokomisa and her removal from Alexandra to Diepsloot was one person’s story
analysis
Chris McGreal
The Gauteng Department of Housing spokesperson, Dumisani Zulu, accuses me of “blatant disregard” for good journalism for allegedly putting one side of the story in the account of the destruction of Henrietta Mqokomisa’s home in Alexandra (“Apartheid wasn’t better than this”, June 29 to July 5).
It was not one side of the story but one person’s story.
The article originally appeared in The Guardian in London, which has carried the government’s justification of the forced removals from Alexandra at length in other articles. This was a tale of the human consequences of those policies with the government’s case stated clearly, if succinctly, and referred to at various points.
What is most striking about Zulu’s letter is that it demonstrates the same lack of humanity that led to the destruction of Mqokomisa’s home and her dumping in Diepsloot. Her plight is described as “dedensification” and being thrown out of her home as “disruption”.
It is true that the local council did not authorise the building of the house in 1988 that would be the same local council denounced by the African National Congress at the time as a puppet of the apartheid regime.
Mqokomisa’s point is that she should not have been forced out of a solid structure house with running water and electricity until the council could provide proper accommodation, not a patch of ground and a pile of poles and corrugated iron. Zulu singularly fails to address this criticism and instead attempts to portray Mqokomisa as being against the Alexandra Renewal Project.
Zulu also justifies forcibly removing Mqokomisa and some of her neighbours because of the flood risk. But Mqokomisa’s house was surrounded by other “legal” homes that were not bulldozed into the ground. Will the flood waters be making a distinction?
The housing spokesperson adds that “the occupants of those structures were illegal”. There’s a blast from the past. The structures may have been illegal, but the occupants?
Zulu goes on to say that 6 000 households have been “successfully” moved from Alex and to claim that Diepsloot has amenities provided.
Sure, some people may now be the proud owners of legal and better homes. Mqokomisa is not one of them. She was living in a house and is now living in a shack, thanks to state policy.
The amenities Zulu boasts of are the barest minimum: chemical toilets and water delivered by truck. Mqokomisa and those around her do not have clean running water or electricity in the shacks they were forced to build after being dumped 40km from their jobs and children’s schools.
Why will Zulu and the ANC not admit that it is just plain wrong to bulldoze people out of their homes before you are able to provide them with proper accommodation and facilities?
The ANC was not elected to do this to poor people who have suffered long enough. It should apologise and adapt its plans for Alexandra.
As for the claim that “apartheid was better than this” it was not made by me but by Mqokomisa. In the context of what she described as the “worst day of her life” that was true.
Chris McGreal is the Johannesburg correspondent for The Guardian, London
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