Politicians can’t stop lying

Every year, the eradication of squatter camps – romanticised by the ANC government as informal settlements, when they are nothing more than camps populated by squatters – has been a feature in successive State of the Province Addresses (Sopa) by Gauteng premiers and, certainly, those of the other provinces.

Three decades on, these pitiful, rat-infested hovels, with a seemingly inexorable rise in crime, are springing up like mushrooms everywhere.

And there are also shacks built inside many hijacked buildings in Johannesburg CBD.

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi got my goat on Monday when he inevitably repeated the false promise during his Sopa. He vowed to “drastically change the living conditions of our people in the 26 townships of our province, over 700 informal settlements and six provincially owned hostels”.

“The freedom we fought for will remain meaningless if our townships, informal settlements and hostels remain in squalor, with sewage flowing freely together with uncollected garbage. We will endeavour to convert our townships, informal settlements and hostels to be better and respectable.”

Duh!

In 2009, Gauteng’s first premier Tokyo Sexwale took it a notch further by “sleeping” in a shack in Diepsloot.

At the time, he had been deployed to national government as human settlements minister and was on his so-called “Sincere Listening Campaign” to get “firsthand experience”. Talk about scoring cheap political points.

And this man, now fabulously wealthy, is not ashamed to say he was born in such squalor.

“About 50 years ago, I was born in a squatter camp like this in Orlando, Soweto, where the stadium now is. It is unfortunate that today we still have the same situation,” he was quoted as saying after his adventure. Blah, blah, blah…

Other premiers have said the same. Back in 2007, Nomvula Mokonyane said “informal settlements would be formalised, upgraded and eradicated”; while David Makhura (remember him?) said in 2021 that “the upgrading and formalisation of informal settlements is another important programme of this government”.

This reminded me of former Mpumalanga premier Ndaweni Mahlangu, who said it was “acceptable for politicians to lie. In fact, politicians lie all the time”, before he got the boot from the ANC.

I am just tired of hearing this.