Two years ago this month, President Thabo Mbeki told Bekkersdal residents that he was so touched by their poverty the government would implement special measures to help them.
He was speaking during an imbizo in the West Rand township, where he listened to stories about unemployment and poverty.
On that hot summer day Mbeki told about 10 000 residents: “After listening to all the issues raised, I have decided that we should make Bekkersdal a special project because it appears different from other places.”
He said national, provincial and local government would collaborate on a project to rescue the township, which is home to about 110 000 people, about 50% of whom are unemployed.
Last week, a visit to the site of the president’s promise showed only one visible sign of progress: toilets, toilets and more toilets. But the Bekkersdal Development Forum (BDF) says that although Mbeki visited in 2002, the project was only launched in December 2003 and most of the work to date had been in the form of drawing up business plans, consultation and planning.
The project has built almost a thousand toilets for shack dwellers living in informal settlements and those who have been moved to a transit camp where they will wait for houses to be built for them. The only other tangible sign of change is the painting and renovation of an old building that will house the urban renewal project.
But even the new toilets are highly contested, with some residents unhappy that four families share each toilet, as opposed to a toilet for each family under the bucket system, which is now being phased out.
“The toilet is too far from my house and what if the owner of the place where the toilet is situated is not there when I need to use it?” asked shack dweller Mamorena Chacha. “And what if there is a sick person in the house and they cannot walk that long distance from our home?”
The upside is that construction of the toilets has created jobs for some. About 15 local construction entities have been subcontracted to build the toilets, and each employs about six people, said Ray Jwaga, chairperson of the local construction collectives.
Jwaga is hopeful about the future, despite the slow start. “When they started, the project managers paid local labourers very little. But the provincial housing minister, Nomvula Mokonyane, was here two weeks ago and we told her our problems. She promised to look into the matter and we hope that in the second phase we will get better negotiations.”
He said residents would prefer to be allowed to tender for business, instead of just being hired muscle. “If they wanted people to build an aeroplane we will accept that we lack expertise. There are so many easy projects here that we can do, but which are being allocated to outsiders.”
BDF spokesperson Mbulelo Koyana said the forum has developed a database of 5 000 names of those in line for jobs as soon as planned projects get off the ground. These include the development of a central business district, upgrading of the taxi rank and development of facilities for hawkers.
Gauteng government urban renewal manager Mika Sebesho says that R1,2-billion will be invested in the Bekkersdal project over seven years.
But the real test of success for the projects will be whether they are able to empower residents by transferring skills, said BDF secretary Gcinikaya Xungu. “The sustainability of the projects depends on the transfer of skills. Human resource development is central to poverty alleviation. At the moment, there is too much money of the project money going to outsiders.”