The Merafong municipality, which includes Carletonville and Khutsong, may soon be incorporated into the North West province. It is in Gauteng at present. The South African Communist Party (SACP) does not agree with this; it says the municipality’s citizens were not consulted and the change will have negative effects.
Last week, protests in Khutsong turned violent and led to the burning of tyres and the looting of shops. The municipal offices were also set alight. A stayaway and march is planned for this Friday.
A final decision on the inclusion of Merafong into the North West has not yet been taken, said the Department of Provincial and Local Government last week. It said the Constitution Amendment Bill, enabling the moving of provincial boundaries, would be debated in Parliament on Tuesday, and only then would any proposed changes to boundaries be referred to provincial legislatures for further debate.
Nkosiphendule Kolisile is the SACP’s West Rand district secretary, and works at the head office as the deputy national organiser. The Mail & Guardian Online asked him 10 questions about the situation in his area.
1. Why does the government want Khutsong to be incorporated into the North West?
Do you want me to respond to that right now? No one knows. They have never told the people. We are still looking for that answer.
No one knows, no one has told us, we don’t know the reasons. I don’t think the mayor knows the reasons. When we asked him, he didn’t give us the reason. Instead, he gave us a broad history of the provinces and of the country and all of that. But he didn’t answer the specific question of why Khutsong has to be incorporated into the North West.
2. Why is the SACP involved in this?
Because we feel that the position of the people is genuine, that [it] is the position of the masses. It reflects the real feelings of the people. For economic reasons and social reasons, it will be good for them to remain in Gauteng.
For example: if you look at the distance between here [Khutsong] and the provincial offices in Mafikeng, it is very, very far and it will cost the residents a lot [to get there]. Also, look at the men that go to Gauteng by train. There are approximately 270 000 people involved.
And it is the name Gauteng; there couldn’t be a Gauteng without all the bigger mines in the province. This has built Gauteng politically and economically; these people [in Merafong] built Gauteng province. To them, they are so much attached to Gauteng, it is like a slap in their face.
There is so much good about Gauteng. And that is where the people stay. Gauteng is by far the most-developed province in South Africa.
3. What is the role of the SACP in this conflict?
I don’t think there is a conflict. We are mobilising the people to demonstrate their wishes [at this Friday’s planned stayaway] and to ensure that they remain in Gauteng. In terms of mobilising, we must unite all the forces, to ensure that we are united as one for staying in Gauteng.
They [the African National Congress] say it is difficult for them to raise their head and oppose, but a lot of the ANC members are supporting the SACP. They hold the view that this [delimitation] proposal should be withdrawn in accordance to the interest of the people. They are supporting it, but not formally, it is not officially done. We are with them during our marches; the people can see there are ANC members there.
What other things do we do, other than mobilising? We ensure that we talk to the government and engage in discussion with them and we talk to the ANC. We talk to the minister and the MECs [provincial ministers] and talk on local level with our allies to ensure that they are attending on the matter. We had meetings with the ANC provincially, and we briefed the general secretary of the ANC. So, those are other things we are doing besides mobilising the people for the Friday stayaway.
Today [Wednesday] we had a meeting with the National Union of Mineworkers, talking to them and agreeing on ways and means and showing that they are going to be part of the stayaway on Friday. We agreed that we will be mobilising the people in full force, [including] their [the union’s] members. Those who will not be at work are going to attend the march.
4. What is going to happen on Friday? And after that?
On Friday, there is a stayaway that will also have a march. We will start at a taxi rank near the station in Carletonville and proceed straight to the municipality offices to hand over our memorandum. We are targeting Minister [of Provincial and Local Government Sydney] Mufamadi to come and receive the memorandum. If there are very few, if the march is poorly attended, there will only be 6 000 people. Anything less than that won’t be a march; I expect far more.
On Sunday, we are taking the portfolio committees from both the provinces and the National Assembly to come and listen to the communities, and we will be giving them our petitions and our submissions. We have been doing this for long, but we think it is important to be consistent with that, because there are those who claim to be deaf, not to have heard what we have said before, and not to have seen what we have sent before, so that when they go to Parliament, they translate exactly what is happening on the ground.
After Sunday, we are going to have another march in the province next week Friday. Now we are going to the premier’s office in Gauteng with the same issue.
There are high possibilities [of solving this issue]. We think the minister has got ears and eyes to come and rate the situation, and if that is true, this can even be solved by tomorrow. It is just that I sense there is reluctance and arrogance in the province, but if there is someone prepared to listen, this could even be solved by tomorrow. I mean, why can’t this [proposal] be withdrawn in favour of the people?
5. Why do you as a person put all this time and effort into the case?
It is because of my organisation’s love and passion for the people and the people’s wishes. I work for this organisation and in this leadership position because I have vowed to assist the people at all cost; particularly the poor and the working people.
Every politician has got ambitions to become a better politician, to improve your work every day. My ambitions are only to assist the people and that my organisation gains strength every day. [What is happening in Khutsong] cannot help me as a person; it will help the organisation’s image, because it shows we care for the people and that is what we are there for.
6. Mufamadi did not visit Khutsong last week, as mayor Des van Rooyen said he would. What were the effects on the community?
The anger, the anger mounted. The people felt that the minister is not willing to listen to them. In fact, the minister also implied that he doesn’t have reasons to give to the people. There is overwhelming support from the people [against the delimitation proposal]. He doesn’t have any reason to prove that otherwise [that the proposal should go ahead]. That’s why we think he did not go to Khutsong.
He said he never promised to come to Khutsong, we don’t believe it. That’s the information that the mayor got from his office [and they] confirmed he would come. But that is according to the mayor; he could not get that information anywhere other than getting it from the [minister’s] office.
7. Over the past week, the protests turned violent and shops were looted. Does the SACP still support the protests in this way?
The SACP has distanced itself from violence, looting and stealing, and we have condemned that in public. We want the people to condemn it. We don’t think the masses should conduct themselves in that fashion. We understand that it is not only the ANC and SACP members who have been with us in this struggle, but other opportunistic tendencies have also manifested themselves and unfortunately they painted our organisation in this matter, and the SACP disapproves that.
Whatever happens, we continue to support the communities. If our sectors will deploy violent people and criminals, that is not going to benefit our struggle. Instead, we are going to isolate those criminals. That is one thing we are going to do. But that cannot distance the SACP as an organisation from the real struggles of the masses.
8. What do you hope will happen when Mufamadi tables a proposal in Parliament to incorporate Khutsong into the North West, possibly on Wednesday?
I am not sure about that [if he will table a proposal on Wednesday]. We have been hearing rumours; in fact, the latest rumour we heard was that he was going to table this in Parliament on Tuesday November 15. This is also news to me.
We are known to be the organisation that has been mobilising the people around this issue. But no one knows what is going to happen when and where. We only know that he will go to Parliament, but we don’t know when and what is expected of us in that event.
We know what we want to do, and we know when to do what we want to do; the only difficulty is that we don’t know what those other people are doing. That is the only difficulty; we know what we want to do and we were very clear about our actions from the beginning.
If he tables the proposal in our favour, then we will all celebrate. It will be fine; we will be happy. But we are afraid he is taking a wrong proposal to Parliament, a proposal that is not taking into account the views and wishes of the people, a proposal that has been manifested by the few, against the absolute will of the people.
9. How true are allegations that mayor Des van Rooyen spearheaded the move to the North West because he was promised a post in the provincial government?
We heard about that. But we cannot confirm those rumours. They are very rife. Because of these rumours — and some reaction on his part — the relationship is lukewarm, but because he is also a leader of the ANC, I think we have to go from there. The SACP talks to him; in fact, we don’t have any problems with him as a person. It has only been the actions and sometimes the utterances he has made against us as an organisation.
10. What will the SACP do when the government actually incorporates Khutsong into the North West?
There will be more actions, more actions, more actions and more actions; including the possibility of taking our government to the Constitutional Court. That’s how serious we are about this, because in any government that undermines people there must be something wrong, and we have to act on that.
If their arguments are actually right — we can only determine that when they are tabled. For now, there are no arguments against what we have put forward. We will consider those arguments at any time when they are tabled, and we will say if they are valid according to us or not, after thoroughly looking [at the arguments].
Depending on the strength of the people [this can go on for years]. The SACP has confidence in our mass strength.