The 101 Flats in KwaDukuza (Stanger) on KwaZulu-Natal’s north coast, known as “Indian Village”, still bear the marks of an ignored apartheid council estate: unemployment, youth delinquency, domestic violence and drug abuse, especially “buttons” (Mandrax) and alcohol.
But the residents of the low-rental housing scheme built in 1964 were clearly overwhelmed when, as part of the ANC’s election campaign, President Kgalema Motlanthe dropped in last week Saturday, moving door to door among its semi-detached flats.
Here was the country’s president in their sitting rooms — and not just on television. “I really love you. We’re very happy you’ve come to our house, Mr President,” said Sagie Pillay (35) an unemployed father of four.
In the awed silence at the Papayya household Motlanthe was given a glass of water. “Our water has a special taste,” said Illembe district mayor Welcome Mdabe, as an attempted ice-breaker. No one was rude enough to point out that KwaDukuza has suffered water cut-offs over the summer because of poor maintenance.
In each lounge, with their plastic-covered settees and faded pictures of The Last Supper, there was a stunned reception. The ghettoised and forgotten could only thank the president for his presence.
Addressing a public gathering of about 200 people in the housing estate, Motlanthe steered away from the platitudinous assurances trotted out for minority groups during election campaigns. Instead, his address appeared a call-to-arms to his fellow South Africans. “The ANC must never, ever take for granted that you will vote for them,” he said. “It must rather work for you.” Residents should “remain mobilised and never withdraw” from the struggle. “The ANC is an organisation of struggle because it believes that change can happen only through struggle — Even if you have to march against an ANC councillor, we view this as support — Life is only given to those who continue to win it back through struggle,” he said.
This became a running theme as Motlanthe also visited indigent households and fronted a rally in Groutville.
At the Boathouse, a plush seaside hotel in upmarket Ballito, Motlanthe addressed business people. He gently dismissed master of ceremonies Clive Mana’s call for a wider multi-sector government bail-out for business.
Outlining South Africa’s challenges in the global slump, he emphasised that after the election, the government’s response would be “bulk infrastructure development of hospitals, schools, clinics and roads”.
“Please go out and vote for the party you prefer. I’m not going to ask you to vote for the ANC — the ANC must earn its stripes and, if you feel that it hasn’t served you, don’t vote for it,” he said.
He later urged business people who complained that inefficient bureaucracy was hampering economic development to “refuse to be treated with disdain … you must demand quality services”, he said. Turning to Shakespeare, he reminded the business types that “sweet are the uses of adversity”.
But he displayed a more popular touch too. Meeting sports bodies in the KwaDukuza Town Hall, he drew on his own football-playing days to underline that sport was necessary for the nation’s physical, economic and political health.
Dribbling past one personal football anecdote and through another, he told the crowd how football had taught him about the importance of the collective, discipline and political strategy.
It was refreshing: no promises, but an activist vision of South Africa.