Masualle must address protests
IT WAS a month ago – the same week that the nation commemorated the 1960 Sharpeville massacre – when Thembekile Fana, 62, was killed, allegedly by police, as hundreds of Keiskammahoek residents took to the streets to protest a litany of service delivery failures including bad roads, broken housing promises and woefully inadequate healthcare.
The Daily Dispatch reported yesterday that the protests had flared up again, with hundreds of South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) members fuelling a blockade of the town’s main road with burning tyres and rubble.
The residents say the ANC-led government has yet to take any action to address their demands.
The DA issued a statement yesterday saying similar protests had erupted in Grahamstown 165km away, with close to 1 000 residents picketing in front of the city hall.
The protest turned ugly in Grahamstown’s Extension 7, where shops were looted. Their concerns are similar: impassable roads, gathering filth in the town and a general paralysis in service delivery.
The recent uprisings in Mahikeng, North West – protests that saw a mall and other business premises torched – have demands at their heart that look much like those of the Keiskammahoek and Grahamstown residents. These South African citizens have all taken to the streets in frustration because they feel their voices are not being heard.
In the Eastern Cape, Premier Phumulo Masualle and his team – both in the government and his party, the ANC – say they have held a number of meetings attempting to assess the state’s performance since the 2014 general elections. The feedback suggests that even though there are some “good stories” to tell, a number of municipalities have failed miserably to carry out their mandate. Their streets are barely passable. Too many people still have no access even to clean drinking water, let alone dignified sanitation, and electricity.
As he addressed his senior managers at a conference in East London last week, Masualle warned his team, saying as long as service delivery was not speeded up, the level of protests across the country could rise ahead of next year’s national election.
He said it was important that the bureaucrats ask themselves critical questions, including: “What are those things we need to do to change people’s perceptions and bring about confidence?” Keiskammahoek has been on fire for days now. So it is important to stop the talk and act, and to fix those “certain things” that render municipalities like Keiskammahoek and Makana unable to provide even the most basic of services to their deserving people.
We cannot condone violence and destruction of property. However, it is clear that people have run out of patience because no one is listening. It is appreciated that the premier convened a press conference yesterday to keep the media up to speed, but loss of lives and destruction of property are a much higher priority.
Masualle should visit these areas and provide leadership as soon as possible. He has to walk the talk and provide solutions for these dysfunctional municipalities.