Mail & Guardian reporter
A library donated to the Joe Slovo squatter camp in Johannesburg was closed last month because a residents’ committee was not informed about its opening.
This week supporters of the library threatened legal action against the committee if it did not allow residents access to the facility.
The library was started this year by Joe Slovo community workers and Bronwen Jones, founder of the trust Children of Fire, which has been rendering services for more than three years in the squatter camp.
Jones had organised the donation of more than 1000 books for the library that operates in a shack also housing a crche. The library is run by trained volunteers. On weekends, children use the library to read, do homework and research.
The committee members said they supported and welcomed the opening of the library but would like to be informed as “representatives of the community”.
According to them, Jones’s failure to communicate with them was a sign of disrespect for the community. “This woman thinks she can control us. She thinks she can come here and do as she pleases,” said committee member Aaron Rambunda.
He accused Jones of dividing the community. “She holds meetings with the community without informing us and feeds them with all sorts of information,” said Rabunda.
“I am the committee. I’ve been here for seven years and I am not going to allow this woman to walk over my head like they [whites] did during the apartheid regime,” shouted a committee member who would only identify himself as David, saying he was scared of being “oppressed” by Jones.
But Jones said the committee of five was not democratically elected. “People are afraid of them, they won’t be able to raise hands to vote against them,” she explained, adding that some committee members owned and leased shacks at R200 a month.
She claimed three committee members were related to each other and the other two members shared a child. She said David owns a house in the adjacent suburb of Crosby and was not a resident of Joe Slovo.
Although there are divisions among the community about whether they elected the committee, they all agree on one thing they need the library.
“We need the library, especially these children,” said Japie Mashadi, pointing at dirty children playing between the shacks.
On Wednesday Jones and community activist Collen Mudau accompanied by the police for protection served committee members and the area councillor with a letter advising them to give residents access to the library.
They also gave them a six-page petition signed by community members in support of the library and a letter from the Johannesburg Institute of Social Services which built the crche pledging their continuing support.
Jones and Mudau said they brought the police because they were “afraid of being victimised and wanted it to look serious”.
Ward councillor Fadiel Moosa denied allegations that he appointed the committee.
He also pledged his support for the library saying it was “exactly what the community needs”. But he accused Jones of refusing to acknowledge the authorities in that area, including himself. “She told me she was not obliged to hold a meeting with me,” said Moosa.