‘We’re drinking our talents away’

Residents blame municipal service failure, chronic unemployment and political infighting in the ANC for the recent spate of unrest in North West province.

And their complaints have been thrown into harsh relief by the disclosure, in North West Finance Minister Maureen Modiselle’s budget speech recently, that the number of people living in extreme to moderate poverty in the province doubled between 1996 and 2005.

Modiselle said the number of poor people in North West had been growing by 7% a year since 1996 to reach current levels of at least 650 000 — a figure that could grow to 1,2-million by 2014.

By 2005, the province still had 300 000 adults with no formal education, while an estimated 440 000 people suffered from HIV/Aids, the leading cause of death.

The province had 0,8 doctors per 10 000 residents, compared with Gauteng’s ratio of 6,8:10 000. The infant mortality rate 10 years ago was estimated at 42%.

For the past three weeks, townships in different parts of the province — notably Lichtenburg, Bloemhof, Zeerust and Klerksdorp — have erupted in violent protest. The Mail & Guardian travelled to Bloemhof and Klerksdorp to question residents about the underlying causes. Pogisho Mogamisi, a young man involved in the Boitumelong (Bloemhof) upheavals, said the demonstrations had been initiated by youths who were ‘fed up” with the lack of job-creation projects in the township.

For the past two years, 24-year-old Mogamisi has been unemployed, and, like hundreds of other idle youngsters, spends his day bingeing in shebeens. ‘We’re drinking our talents away because there are no jobs,” he said.

Residents also complained of a lack of recreational and sporting facilities, the poor quality of RDP houses and lack of delivery feedback from local councillors.

Nana Matlakala, who lives in a tiny shack with her child, feels cheated that she has been waiting for a house since 1998. And she is aggrieved by the sight of children playing on municipal rubbish tips and in pigsties. ‘The conditions are unhealthy for our children, sies! But what can they do without playgrounds?”

In Boitumeleng’s extension 4, an area of more than 1 000 shacks, residents still use bucket sanitation — despite President Thabo Mbeki’s announcement in 2005 that it would be eradicated by the end of last year. Mbeki has since extended the deadline to the end of this year.

But Matlakala and other residents have lost patience with government promises. ‘I call myself ‘rubbish’, not because my Tswana surname means that but because of the bad conditions we are are forced to live in,” she said.

Some residents complain bitterly that the municipality has failed to hand out food rations to impoverished families. ‘They promised us food last year; we’ve been waiting and nothing’s come,” said Celina Motebe (39).

Motebe depends on her R190 a month child grant to raise her two grandchildren. ‘All that [money] goes to school fees and I’m left with nothing. I have to beg for food handouts from the neighbours, and that’s embarrassing,” she said.

In Jouberton, Klerksdorp, the protests are partly blamed on fighting in the ruling party. The M&G was told that disgruntled members belonging to an ANC faction called ‘Mapogo” have swelled the ranks of the local branch of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) and are mobilising communities to revolt against ANC and council leaders.

Last year, Mapogo leaders alleged they were being purged from government positions and ANC structures by another faction nicknamed ‘the Talibans”.

Last week, the ANC Youth League issued a statement accusing Sanco of being a ‘refuge of criminality and lawlessness with a clear intention to unleash these [violent] acts on our communities to bring about an expected eventual collapse of all municipalities”.

Indirectly fingering Mapogo members, the statement blamed Sanco for using service delivery as a ‘smokescreen to disguise a well-orchestrated political agenda aimed at discrediting and undermining the good work the political and government leadership has been doing in the province”.

Paul Mnguni, Sanco’s provincial chairperson, would not be drawn on the warring ANC factions. However, he told the M&G that it was ‘wrong” for the league to attack the ruling party. ‘The league’s statement put the relationship between Sanco and the ANC in the province at strain. At any time, it can stop, and that would not be good for the alliance.”

On Wednesday, Sanco staged a march in Matlosana municipality in Klerksdorp to protest against unemployment, poor quality of roads, the awarding of tenders to ward committee members and the employment of a traffic officer without a valid driver’s licence.

The M&G understands that the real spark for the protests was a decision by the ANC caucus in Matlosana last week to purge councillors belonging to Sanco.