September 25 to October 1 2009

Waffle and spin

The article by the director general of the former housing department (now department of human settlements), Itumeleng Kotsoane, in defence of the N2 Gateway project (‘N2 Gateway taught some valuable lessons”, September 4) is filled with bureaucratic waffle and spin, but ignores the real experiences of the supposed beneficiaries of the project.

Thus, waffle: ‘A set of policy directives, legislative guidelines, financial and technical instruments, systems and procedures had to be redesigned to ensure optimal use, application and accountability.”

In addition to the insufficient funding of the project mentioned in the article to which Kotsoane is responding (‘Gateway never had a chance”, August 14), the auditor general’s special report on the N2 Gateway discovered a further morass of official illegality:

• The legislation underlying the project had still not been passed by Parliament although the project began in 2004;
• The business plan had not been finalised before commencement and was not available for the audit;
• Insufficient land was secured before commencement;
• Affordable housing was not provided in phase one for the target market identified (residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement);
• There was considerable ‘fruitless and wasteful expenditure”;
• The initial building consortium (Cyberia Technologies) was sixth on the tender evaluation list, its appointment was not properly authorised and it did not have a contract;
• Thubelisha Homes was appointed in 2006 to replace Cyberia without any proper tender procedures and without a contract.

One suspects that the rush to implement the project, which resulted in these illegalities, had less to do with ‘an impending social catastrophe”, as Kotsoane claims, than with a desire to ‘prettify” the N2 corridor before the 2010 World Cup. The so-called beneficiaries are still suffering the consequences.

Thus, spin: ‘Visitors as well as ordinary residents now marvel at the developments on the N2 corridor, reflecting the positive ­impression it creates. At the same time, to see Langa itself resolutely emerging as a suburb of Cape Town from the shadows of an apartheid township is a significant step away from the city of our past.”

Kotsoane must be aware that ­residents of the 700 flats in phase one of the N2 Gateway (in Langa) have been on rent boycott for two years. Only 4% of rent was being paid by July 2009. This was not from ‘marvelling at positive impressions” but because of their dissatisfaction with the substandard quality of their housing and their being compelled to pay rentals well above those advertised when they applied for the flats. They have also been forced to pay for the inflated spending on the (shoddy) construction that was a consequence of the bypassing of proper procedures. They deserve redress.

Is Langa emerging as a suburb of Cape Town? Kotsoane was instrumental in bringing the court order for the eviction of the remaining residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa to the outskirts of the city in Delft, where there is no rail service and few job opportunities. Yet he claims the N2 Gateway project was ‘focused on the upgrading of informal settlements at the epicentre of the city and thus offering the opportunity to explore and demonstrate new ways to reintegrate the living space for all of its citizens”. Yet most of the N2 Gateway housing has been built in Delft!

Kotsoane writes that the project provoked public debate. ‘Every major institution in the country has been called to offer an opinion, including Parliament and the Constitutional Court.”

Parliament has ‘offered an opinion” because of the illegalities highlighted by the auditor general.

The Constitutional Court offered an opinion because the residents of Joe Slovo appealed to it against their eviction.

At the start, when Joe Slovo residents asked to discuss their problems with then-housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu, she refused. The public debate was provoked by the disaster the N2 Gateway project has proved to be. — Martin Legassick, emeritus professor, University of the Western Cape

I’m a proud white African

As a white African and a South African citizen, I take umbrage at much of what Mapo-Phaahle wa Mokoena had to say in his letter about the Brandon Huntley case (September 18).

For starters, I am an actual white (not a ‘so-called white”) and I am an African (not a European) because I, and my ancestors, going back many generations, were born in Africa.

As a South African citizen I am as entitled as any other South African, of any colour, to state my opinion. I resent the fact that white South Africans are constantly told to shut up or ship out.

I believe it would be infinitely more constructive for me to remain in the country that I love and try to be part of the solution in rebuilding our divided nation. I will not be able to do that if I’m not permitted to contribute to the reconstruction or the debate on how we can improve our society.

As far as Huntley is concerned, he is equally entitled to formulate his own views and make his own choices, even if I or others don’t agree with them. Unfortunately, I can certainly relate to his perception of not being safe in our crime-ridden society, although I think the causes are rooted in the lack of adequate education and economic opportunity and not because whites are being targeted by black criminals. Every race group in South Africa is subjected to the scourge of crime. Furthermore, given that black people form the largest population group in our country, it is statistically probable that the majority of perpetrators of crime will come from that population group, even before taking into account contributing factors such as poverty.

I am a white African and proud of it! I am not going to shut up or be chased out of my own country simply because I happen to have a white skin. I’m going to stay, have my say and make my contribution to our society.

I don’t believe that South Africa will benefit from the exclusion or expulsion of whites from the debate or from the country. — H Scholz, Rivonia

I read with disgust the claims in John Reunert’s letter (‘SA state has also erred”, September 11) on Canada’s granting of refugee status to Brandon Huntley. The selection of incidents by Reunert is as distorted as the claims by Huntley.

He talks of crimes against white people. He should also have mentioned the fact that Lucky Dube (black) was shot dead during a botched hijacking and the former Bona magazine editor (black) was shot dead during a robbery.

There are so many cases I can quote, including three hijackings I personally experienced; in one of them I was shot four times and left for dead.

The lesson South Africans must learn is that the ‘us and them” attitude is never going to work. We are all equally affected by crime, black and white. Criminals do not see colour or race. Their activity is driven by the gap between the ‘haves” and the ‘have nots” in our society. — Khaya Xaba, Gauteng

Militarism inappropriate for SA

The resolution of the African National Congress national executive committee (NEC) at its last meeting to support calls for the ‘de-unionisation” of the military, as reported by the M&G Online (September 21), is in accordance with government’s securocratic stance on the matter.

President Jacob Zuma recently commented: ‘If South Africa [is] being attacked and soldiers have grievances and go on strike, what will happen? You will be saying our security must, at the end, rest with unions. That would be a very funny arrangement — Can the security of the country be put in the hands of unions? Can we give unions the right to defend us?”

These sentiments stem from a hegemonic bourgeois and militaristic definition of security that is characterised by the misperception that a ‘disciplined” army with sophisticated and top-of-the-range weaponry is our source of ‘defence” against a possible ‘external” military threat.

Consequently, in a manner reminiscent of the thinking of apartheid-era generals and politicians, anything short of this amounts to a ‘crisis” and a major ‘security threat”. This results in a militarised society manifested in a secretive arms industry and excessive military expenditure, all under the guise of fulfilling the state’s constitutional obligations to protect citizens.

This notion of security is shared by many who sympathise with the situation of the soldiers. But the reality on the ground (including last year’s violent attacks on foreign nationals, HIV/Aids, unemployment, growing inequalities, ubiquitous protests for basic necessities and strikes by workers) corroborates the view that our nation’s immediate security threats are not military but socioeconomic and internal.

Finally, lest we forget, countries such as the United States, Britain and Russia, with the most advanced weapons and formidably ‘disciplined” armies, have not made use of these in the ‘defence” of their citizens, but increasingly to advance imperial agendas aimed at politically, culturally and economically dominating weaker nations. — Percy Ngonyama, Durban

Far from real socialism

The project of social transformation from one epoch to the projected one has tremendous complexities. We need to ask the relevant and critical questions that many on the left never do when endeavouring to construct a socialist society and deal with social contradictions.

The question is: how do you construct a socialist society in the current global village with the sharp contradictions in politics, economics and technology? Do we have serious thinkers in the tripartite alliance who understand the global scenario? Many boldly call themselves communists. Do they understand what it means? Do they have what it takes?

I am not talking about ministers’ million-rand cars. I am talking about serious stuff. Before you become a communist or a socialist you need to have a revolutionary morality so that you understand the issues of a modern democratic society. Communism is the highest stage of socialism and no country has reached a socialist stage.

In South Africa many people are tired now; they claim to have been in the struggle for too long. Even those who claim not to be tired demonstrate tiredness by their conduct. They want to put food on their families’ tables.

A wall has been built between the ‘national democratic revolution” and the project of socialism. First we must break that wall down before we talk of socialism in South Africa. — Lindikhaya Bravis Maqhasha, Cape Town

What does FUL say?

It is unfortunate that Freedom Under Law (FUL) and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) failed to take the opportunity offered by the feet-washing exercise of Adriaan Vlok.

Vlok should have provided an insight into those on the Bench who assisted his government’s oppression of the black majority. None of those who served apartheid as judges appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

If Hlophe is considered ‘defiant”, what does FUL say about the defiance — if not outright contempt — displayed by judges who faithfully served apartheid and have not shown even the slightest remorse? Seen in this context, the alleged defiance of Hlophe pales into insignificance. — Mike Stainbank, The Apartheid Museum

In brief

Jonathan Prior has been searching in vain for the BLK JKS album Mystery (Letters, September 18). It is now available at the Durban Gateway Musica Mega Store — all four copies in stock at Musica were ordered by this branch, and there are now three, because I bought one. — Justin Engels, Revolver Records, Ballito

I crow with delight when the less-than-intellectually-gifted Leonard Chuene and his toadies believe they can outwit the law of unintended consequences. They are now acting like rats in front of a mamba. — Marek Bozalek

The fact that Chuene doesn’t think he should resign after all his lies and the violation of Semenya’s dignity is baffling. And the silence from Julius Malema is defeaning too. — Theo Martinez, Johannesburg

The recent Wits strike can be understood only in the context of society’s struggle against neoliberal capitalism. Section 29 of the Constitution includes a right to education, yet in reality this is nullified. Education is a privilege; its commodification confirms this. — Thabang Sefalafala, third-year student, University of the Witwatersrand

I can recommend an excellent psychotherapist and some rooibos tea to help Julius Malema answer his question: ‘Do you know who I am?” — David G Muller