When North West Premier Edna Molewa went walkabout in Khutsong two weeks ago she was sworn at by residents who told her to bring back Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa.
She was welcomed by only a few residents, particularly those invested in the system. For two years, Khutsong has burned in opposition to incorporation into the North West. While incorporation is the immediate grievance, the story of Khutsong is one of a frustrated freedom and community anger.
Molewa’s walkabout was part of a concerted push by the ANC to recapture the hearts and minds of a community where it has been declared persona non grata and where no ANC councillors live in the wards they represent.
They call themselves a leadership in ‘exileâ€; residents say they are no leaders at all. Now the violence is being ratcheted up.
Four days after her visit, two houses belonging to the members of the Anti-North West Forum and the South African Communist Party were petrol-bombed.
This came on the eve of the anniversary of K-day — on March 1 last year, the tiny township of Khutsong became the epicentre of the local government election.
The ANC ‘in exile†was blamed for the violence, especially after an ANC councillor was arrested for assault the same night. Between now and March 31, expect to see more heat in Khutsong, for that is when the handover happens.
The impasse is taking its toll on private lives on both sides of the conflict.
A well-known policeman in the area claims he is a victim of the stalemate and the ANC backlash.
Joshua ‘Mojo†Kadi was recently fired from the police force.
His suspension letter read, in part: ‘You have allegedly, since November 2005 to date, actively associated yourself with the anti-North West leadership in a very public and vocal manner. You further told a witness that, if they don’t support the anti-North West campaign, the houses of council members will be burnt.â€
One of the witnesses at his disciplinary hearing was local mayor Des van Rooyen, who testified that Kadi had introduced himself as an adviser to Anti-North West Forum leader Jomo Mogale.
Kadi was found guilty of failing to protect the community, and of warning taxi owners that their houses would be burnt down if they did not support his cause.
This factional war is getting uglier all the time as state resources are allegedly abused.
Now unemployed, Kadi is appealing against the ruling, saying he believes there was a plot to silence him and strike fear into the hearts of the anti-North West lobby.
The local ANC has branded him a rogue, apartheid-era policeman. ANC Merafong chairperson Johnny Makiti is putting a brave face on things. He says the party is alive and well in the township and is gradually winning over residents, who are now weary of the fighting and just want jobs.
Although not a councillor, Makiti’s family home was torched and he was forced out of the township.
He insists the campaign against North West was premised on lies that people would have to travel to distant Mafikeng for their pension grants and that the train from Johannesburg would no longer reach Carletonville.
And, he says, the recent council job initiative, which has resulted in the employment of about 800 people in cleaning up the township, is swinging the mood in the ANC’s favour.
Other job-creation plans include road rehabilitation, housing construction and revamping the local stadium.
‘People are now realising that the claim that there will be hunger in North West is just not true,†Makiti said.
But Makiti may be counting on peace before it hatches. He faces allegations of putting himself at the head of a jobs queue to win the management of the job-creation projects. It is an allegation he disputes, but which the community clings to.
It is going to take a lot more than small, localised projects to win over Khutsong. The community is filing its case in the Constitutional Court; others want ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma to intervene.
And teachers are becoming restive too, as they now fall under the North West province.
Teachers and pupils have been at the forefront of the anti-North West movement. Mogale is a teacher himself and he meets with his supporters every day under a tree outside his house to discuss the way forward.
Mogale is a former ANC ward councillor and deputy chairperson of the council’s executive committee in Merafong. He has resigned his membership in disgruntlement and says the ANC is dead wrong if it really believes Khutsong is losing anti-incorporation steam.
‘According to the ruling party, we are in the North West, but according to the community we are still in Gauteng.â€