Loyal voters turn their backs on the
Angry residents of Buffalo City in the Eastern Cape say they will boycott the polls over the council’s service delivery failures
Despite Buffalo City’s role in the Eastern Cape’s indignity of having 12300 pit latrines, the second-highest number in the country, it was the only metropolitan area where the ANC’S share of the vote increased in the 2021 local government polls.
But dilapidated houses and deteriorating water infrastructure, which poses serious health hazards, are the final straw for voters in the municipality who have traditionally supported the ANC. They have vowed to boycott the 29 May general elections to show how angry they are about their hardship.
According to Statistics South Africa’s census of municipalities, released in August, the number of households with bucket toilets in the Eastern Cape increased to 12300 from 11595 the previous year, more than 5 000 of them in Buffalo City.
About 594923 households in the Eastern Cape were classified as disadvantaged — measured by a monthly income of between R1780 and R3 560 — with Buffalo City accounting for more than 152000 of the province’s poor homes.
But, despite these figures, Buffalo City was the only metropolitan city where the ANC, which has governed the area since 1994, increased its vote share, going from 60% in the 2016 local government elections to 61% in 2021.
Ahead of the 2021 vote, the Mail & Guardian visited Kwaklifu village in Qonce (formerly King William’s Town) — which is part of Buffalo City — and spoke to Vusumzi Tyakume, the area’s traditional leader, who detailed the poverty in the villages, where residents still used pit latrines.
“There are homesteads in this village that don’t have any toilets at all. People in those homes have to go to their neighbours and ask to relieve themselves. Those who have toilets, the pit latrines need to be drained once they are filled up.
“This is the competency of Buffalo City, which has never drained the latrines,” Tyakume said at the time.
On the M&G’S return to the area two weeks ago, the abject poverty was still evident, with residents saying they now also have to contend with their homes being damaged by water leaking from an old reservoir.
Mzikazi Tyakume, the traditional leader’s sister, said her family were staunch ANC members and had consistently campaigned for the party in previous elections — but no more.
Tyakume carried on her back her sickly one-year-old granddaughter, whose nostrils were visibly and audibly clogged with thick mucus.
She said her house, which she shares with eight other people, including five grandchildren, was damp as a result of the reservoir’s pipes leaking.
The damp had affected her granddaughter’s health, she said.
Cracks were visible in walls of the house, which Tyakume said her family had built in the late 1970s.
“Look at my granddaughter, she is always clogged up and struggles to breathe because my house is always damp. I have to deal with her constant nasal congestion.
“Now, tell me, what kind of life will this child have?”
Asked whether she would still vote for the ANC on 29 May, the 58-yearold grandmother said an emphatic “no”, adding that she would not participate because voting for another party was not an option for her.
“I am an ANC member in good standing, having joined the organisation in the 1970s. My parents died as ANC members. [But] how am I expected to vote for the ANC [now]?
“I will not exercise my right to vote because I see no point. I am a known member of the ANC and campaigned for the party in the past, but 29 May will be another day for me. I will stay in my house and relax.”
The municipality is building houses in the village. However, Tyakume said she had been told she would not be getting a state-sponsored house because of fears of subsidence.
“How do they know that the house will sink? I have asked them to build the house on higher ground in my yard but the municipality still refused,” she said.
“I then asked whether they do not fear that my neighbours, who are experiencing the same water problems as me, will not have sinking houses … The councillor [conceded] that those houses could also sink.”
Kwaklifu is in Buffalo City’s ward 25, the councillor of which, Cynthia Mxabanisi-gakrishe of the ANC, has been accused of not acting, despite residents’ cries for help.
The pleas include requests for disinfectant for their pit latrines, which were full and blocked during the M&G’S visit, emitting a stomachchurning stench every time someone opened the corrugated-iron doors.
A five-litre container of acid to clean the pit latrines costs R680 from the local wholesaler, a prohibitive price for residents. Households are forced to pool their financial resources and share one container.
Tyakume has her own health issues — having been diagnosed with tuberculosis about two months ago — but is more concerned about the wellbeing of her grandchildren.
Her neighbour Nongetheni Tshete is one of the few people in the area who has had the municipality build a house on her land.
But the 76-year-old, who also lives with five grandchildren, has not moved into the state house because it has not yet been electrified.
“Before I move in, I need to dig a bigger ditch to prevent the water from reaching the new house because I don’t want to go through this hardship of living in a damp home with the new house,” Tshete added.
In all the yards the M&G visited, water had seeped below the foundations of the houses.
Tshete pointed to a bruise on the right side of her forehead, saying she had slipped and hurt herself recently while trying to sweep the water out of her old house.
“Unfortunately, my arthritis was giving me problems that day and the children were at school. So, it was left to me to sweep up the water and I fell,” the grandmother said.
Nosimo Sileku, 63, has resorted to collecting curbstones from a nearby road construction site to place along her fence in an attempt to prevent the water from getting through.
Sileku and her husband, both retired factory workers, have started subsistence farming and have several cattle, goats and chickens. She said her animals were suffering because of the deep mud in their enclosure.
“Besides the curbs that I have installed, I also dug a trench to prevent water from reaching the kraal.
“I can’t even put mats inside my house because they will be damaged,” Sileku explained.
“Municipal workers arrive and patch the pipes, which only temporarily stops the water from gushing out — until the next time when they burst and we are faced with the same problems.”
Like Tyakume, Tshete and Sileku — who also said they came from strong ANC families — stressed that they would not vote for the ruling party and would rather sit out this month’s elections.
The M&G sent detailed questions to ANC Eastern Cape spokesperson Gift Ngqondi, as well as Samkelo Ngwenya, the Buffalo City municipal spokesperson. Neither had responded at the time of going to print, despite repeated text messages asking for comment.
The auditor general’s report for the 2022-23 period painted a bleak picture of Buffalo City’s financial management, giving the metro a qualified audit opinion.
The audit opinion means the municipality’s “financial statements contain material misstatements in specific amounts or there is insufficient evidence for us to conclude that specific amounts included in the financial statements are not materially misstated”.
The report added that “the metro continued to rely on the audit processes to identify misstatements in its financial statements, rather than improving its internal controls”.