Race is rearing its ugly head in the rural Western Cape town of Vredendal, an African National Congress stronghold.
There is a backlog of 8 000 houses in the Matzikama municipality and 500 families still use night soil buckets. But, rather than erupting in street protests, beefs about basic services have sparked recriminations between coloureds and Africans and accusations of preferential treatment.
”Each community must get houses; each must get services so that all should feel accommodated,” Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool pleaded with a 1 000-strong crowd at a weekend imbizo in the town. ”You have to understand that, like the whole of South Africa, this area is changing. That’s not something to be afraid of …”
At Tuesday’s evaluation of the encounters, Rasool admitted the widespread racial and linguistic tensions were cause for concern. But this had to be addressed by even-handed service delivery across all communities.
The imbizo was one of three in the Western Cape councils, assisted by the government’s Project Consolidate, aimed at remedying financial disarray in local authorities. Racial tensions also surfaced in Overberg and the Boland.
ANC control is not under threat in Matzikama. Whatever the grumbles, the dominant dynamic in the province’s rural hinterland is appreciation for what is delivered — even if it is a one-roomed house with an inside tap, no ceiling and no electricity.
”They must give me services; my house is dark like a shack,” said Ann Abrahams. But after spending years on the housing waiting list, she said she is satisfied with her first brick home.
Not all of Matzikama’s 20 000 voters plan to vote. Says Rowena de Kock, who came to the imbizo ”just to listen”: ”I’ll wait and see whether to vote. I’m not satisfied with how things are.”
De Kock has been jobless since leaving school. Unemployment here officially stands at 20%, but the work is seasonal, on the local farms.
This Friday, Rasool will give account to President Thabo Mbeki’s coordinating committee on the imbizos. The province’s racial dynamics will feature alongside service delivery — Mbeki, admits Rasool, is ”particularly concerned about the state of non-racialism in the Western Cape”.