The African National Congress’s choice of KwaZulu-Natal to sell its message of peace, hope for the future and a society that truly cares could not have been delivered to a more understanding audience.
Because KwaZulu-Natal knows war. And, like the rest of South Africa, the people living there know only too well about poverty and despair. Anyone peddling hope, even at the launch of an election manifesto, will have a hearing.
But, for a province so divided, ”truly caring” is only as good as it is seen to care for all, regardless of firmly held party allegiance.
On the road that leads to the town of Mpumalanga, about 40km west of Durban, one is greeted by an old army tank rusting away. Mpumalanga attained world infamy in the late 1980s when it became the centre of a political turf war between the Inkatha Freedom Party and supporters of the ANC-aligned United Democratic Front. Thousands died in a township-wide battle. In Mpumalanga, in a single incident, just more than 60 people were killed in a few hours.
The tanks and Mpumalanga’s guns may have gone silent, but the peace being promised by President Thabo Mbeki is not as secure as some might have wished.
In the town, Bheki Mzolo, wearing an IFP cap, tells of his happiness: after having to flee his parents’ home because Mpumalanga was an ANC stronghold he is now free to return, regardless of his ideology. But he is unhappy with what he perceives to be only ANC supporters benefiting from 10 years of freedom.
”We were promised that all our houses that were destroyed during the violence would be rebuilt. But now we only see development happening in the ANC areas.
”Recently there was a project to change sewage pipes in the area. All the people who got piece jobs on the project were ANC people. We are all hungry, it’s not just ANC people who need to eat.
”Now the TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] has made its payouts, again it is ANC people who are running around with the R15 000, sometimes R30 000. You have to ask yourself, who were they fighting? Were they fighting by themselves?”
”When we signed the peace treaty with the ANC, it was not because we were scared of them. We don’t mind a return to war if necessary.” This was a common sentiment often repeated in IFP dominated areas. Another resident, who declined to be named because she is the wife of a prominent local leader, said their children had opted to use addresses of areas known for being ANC strongholds.
”Once the ANC people see that these children are from our area, they don’t get jobs,” she added. When asked how the provincial government, which is dominated by the IFP, had fared, she responded: ”It’s no use their having power because whatever they need to do they first have to ask the ANC for money.”
For those aligned to the IFP, the ANC is the source of all that is not well within their communities. In 1991 the last gun fired for a political cause sounded in the area. But the dilapidated walls of what were once prosperous businesses and comfortable homes, as well as the thousands who roam the streets unemployed and uneducated, remind many of those battles.
To some, they also speak to the futility of voting.
”Intomb’ ishelwa ngamanga [To win a girl’s affection, you have to lie]. We have been promised so much but nothing has happened. We will not be fooled thrice,” said Mpumalanga resident PP Ndlovu.
”[Minister of Defence Mosiuoa] Terror Lekota and that Sisulu girl were here and they promised us all those things but we have seen nothing.
”Look at this building,” he said pointing to the relic of what used to be a supermarket, bottlestore and a tavern. ”They have not done anything to fix them years later,” says Ndlovu.
An ANC MP from the town, Meshack Hadebe, dismissed the talk that only ANC members’ houses were being restored.
”When we founded the Peace and Reconstruction Fund, Dr Frank Mdlalose of the IFP [then premier of KwaZulu-Natal] and Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who was at the time provincial ANC leader, went to Germany to raise funds.
”They both jointly monitored the rehabilitation and restoration of the houses. There was no way that process could be biased,” said Hadebe.
For others in Mpumalanga, as elsewhere in the country, the votes will be won on the bread-and-butter issues of jobs and a more tangible piece of the future.
Says Prince Makhaya: ”The youth were promised many things that were not forthcoming. We tried to explain to them that they had to be patient as all those things will come with time.
”They lost heart and many are now into drugs and alcohol. They say that they were never consulted.”
For him the competition for his vote will be fought in the loo.
”There hasn’t been any development here. We are still using the pit toilets. When they first erected them, they said the toilets will only be used for about 10 years. It’s been 12 or 14 years and nothing has changed.
”But we are better off here. Sometimes you get people from other sections pretending they are visiting when in truth all they want is to use your toilet. We hope that whoever wins the next election will not be full of vengeance and they will deliver regardless of their allegiance.”
Meanwhile, it is a hot day in the Durban township of KwaMashu. Almost every other person in L section of this township is going topless or as topless as their age, bodies or gender can allow.
Inside one of the four-roomed typical township houses, Gogo Than-diwe Langa is ironing while her grandchildren sit outside. Despite the heat, Gogo Langa’s descendants have no choice but to stay outside the house during the day — the place is too small to accommodate energetic children.
The four-room is in fact a two-roomed house because another family occupies the other two rooms. The families share a toilet with a shower and a tap outside their homes.
This is why Mbeki’s message at the launch of the ANC election campaign that ”our people know that if I live in a shack today, tomorrow I will live in a proper house” resonates deeply in this community. That the area is traditionally an ANC stronghold also helps.
It is because of such living conditions, which affect all of the about 1 300 households in L section, that Mbeki announced as one of his Presidential Projects in 2001 a plan to build houses, schools and roads in KwaMashu.
The new houses, to be built on the outskirts of KwaMashu, will mean that one family will relocate to a four-roomed house in the area, leaving their former neighbours to enjoy the extra two rooms. The new area is to be known as Mount Royal.
Sixty-four houses have already been built in the old L section and are being used as showrooms for the Mount Royal project. Despite the hopeful developments, Gogo Langa remains cynical about the future. ”I would really like to stay here. But I don’t know whether there is anything to be hopeful of in this world. The devil is everywhere.”