Johannesburg’s Alexandra township, the stamping ground of Julius Malema’s ANC Youth League rival, Lebogang Maile, is the last place one would expect Malema to put up a stellar performance. But the youth league president has been a major drawcard for the ruling party wherever he has been on the stump.
Malema took charge on a visit to the Alexandra informal settlement, Stjwetla, on Sunday, electioneering for the ANC under the guise of bringing the highest levels of government to listen to residents’ concerns.
With Tokyo Sexwale, the human settlements minister, and Nomvula Mokonyane, the Gauteng premier, in tow, he fulfilled a promise he had made to them the previous week that he would make sure that their concerns were addressed.
The plan worked — he was hailed as a leader who reached out to the people. He was well received even among the disgruntled residents of Stjwetla.
During the door-to-door campaign ANC leaders and their security personnel squeezed through tiny passages between single-room shacks and stepped over cooking fires on the riverbank. One could almost believe that campaigning was secondary and they were completely focused on how they would meet residents’ housing demands. “Those who came first — we have to decide how quickly we can move them,” Sexwale said.
Malema agreed: “Once we move them we must take care of this place — put a fence [up] or something.”
Malema told the media that he felt the pain of Stjwetla and that the youth league had returned to the squatter camp “as an acknowledgement that something needs to be done”. Residents should be relocated to a more habitable area and Stjwetla turned into a park, he said.
Malema, who chaired the community meeting, addressed residents mostly in North Sotho, using English sparingly. He allowed them to express their anger, to repeat themselves and to swear about their frustrations with the failures of the ANC government.
“We need to respect each other and allow everyone an opportunity to talk. I don’t want anyone to leave this place unhappy because we denied them a chance to talk,” he said, a model of patience and restraint.
There were other signs that it was Malema’s show — the marquee erected in an open field between Stjwetla and upmarket Marlboro Gardens was decorated mainly in youth league colours and, apart from Sexwale, Mokonyane and Humphrey Mmemezi, the Gauteng housing minister, those on stage were youth league leaders.
“Last Sunday we were doing door-to-door in Stjwetla and you told us there is no one from government who is listening to you,” Malema trumpeted. “We undertook to bring you the government. “Today we are not going to talk too much. We want the people of Stjwetla to talk — not visitors, not ANC volunteers, not branch executive committee members.”
Indifferent response
Maile, the youth league’s provincial chairperson, arrived well before Malema to an indifferent crowd response. Party supporters awaited Malema for an hour and broke into loud cheers when his arrival was announced.
Activists had earlier taken part in a rally of mostly luxury vehicles, and plastered with ANC election posters, led by Harley Davidson choppers. Malema was the star attraction, as campaigners urged residents across Alexandra to converge on Stjwetla.
Maile’s from Alexandra, but he had to be coaxed by Malema into making a brief speech. “We heard your problems; some of them we know already,” he said. “As part of the Alexandra renewal programme there is a plan to build a park here.”
Malema’s intervention averted a protest march to the Gauteng housing department planned for Wednesday. A community leader brought three memoranda to the Sunday meeting: one each for Malema, Sexwale and Mokonyane.
Topping the list of demands was that the leaders should ensure that residents deprived of state housing should be allocated homes as soon as possible.
Residents complained about the continued absence of their councillor, Mirriam Makhubela, accusing her of failing to come to Stjwetla to address residents’ concerns even when invited. Some claimed she has not been seen in the informal settlement since she was elected five years ago.
Malema had an immediate solution that prompted loud applause: “This councillor that you’re complaining about is no longer your councillor. We have removed her. We’ve got a new candidate.” He attacked council representatives who did not know what was required of them and who failed the community.
“When you’re councillors, your house should be an office of the people. You should be available at all times,” he said. Resident Stephina Mokwena thanked Malema for making time on two consecutive Sundays to see the community’s problems first hand.
“You’re the first youth league president to come out to the people. The rest were hiding from us.” In the larger political picture, the composition of Malema’s team seemed calculated to win support for one of the factions vying for the ANC’s leadership in Mangaung next year. Mokonyane is now said to sympathise with the alleged anti-Zuma plotters.
In his address Sexwale defended Malema’s singing of controversial struggle song Dubul ‘iBhunu (shoot the boer) to cement their alliance. “This boy is being prosecuted for singing our songs. Comrade Julius, don’t be afraid to sing our songs,” he said to loud cheers.
Sexwale asked jokingly what the park that would be built once residents are relocated from Stjwetla should be named. “Malema Park”, residents shouted in response, and then “Juju Park”. Malema declared that young South Africans would continue the struggle to improve the lives of the poor because the youth that he led did not want to be a generation of failures.
But he did not miss an opportunity to smuggle in the issue of the succession race. “We’re not in anyone’s pocket. When we talk, people say, ‘You want to topple us’. Topple us for what, when the people of Stjwetla are still suffering?”
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