USUAL HAVOC
Another slice of life in new SA ’ s
MURKY allegiances, herd mentality, residual memories past and present, lack of physical, tangible components as examples of service delivery, resources and opportunities unevenly distributed...
These are the charms and passions that put in motion the wheel of anarchy in the townships.
Zamdela is yet another name on the bonfire of post-apartheid protests, another crazy nightmare, a seething political situation that makes politicians tie themselves in rhetorical knots.
It is also a scary place to be if you don t blend in, a deep tribalism ’ closet and a den of intolerance locked down by people who destroy and burn the very services they will need the next morning.
If anything, the strike against the proposed merger of Metsimaholo and Ngwathe Municipalities was a chilling epiphany of the people s will, not of a sinister group ’ waving a third force flag.
Street walls were bombed with cryptic codes such as VSL “Nohlanya s 4 and crude language ’ ” with the writing F*** Ace Ma“kgosha (prostitute)”, a corruption of Magashule, and F*** Parys.”
“Somali, Pakistani and local businesses were torched and looted, and some businesspeople driven out of town.
The only way to explain the mob philosophy is to quote Can Themba, who wrote in his short story Mob Passion: “... in the soul of almost every being raved a seething madness, wild and passionate, with the causes lying deep. ” This needed to happen be“cause negotiations with government have never worked,” says Gab Mokoena, a Zamdela Concerned Group committee member, who was leading a team of people clearing the rubble on the street on Wednesday afternoon.
This strike action was to prove a point to a government that s ’ getting too big for its britches. But I think we ve achieved all “’ we set out to do. Now we re em’ barking on a cleaning campaign so that normality can return to the township. Even though the cooperative governance minister (Richard Baloyi) hasn t said any’ thing significant. He s brought us back where “’ we started. The matter is still with the demarcation board. We are basically starting from scratch.”
Asked if the strike would not have been better without violence, Mokoena thinks hard: We never “encouraged violence. Private businesses that were torched are not involved in the problems we face.
So it wasn t the residents res“’ ’ olution to go on the rampage,” he says. What we are fighting for is “development in this area. When you enter Zamdela its “structures remind you of apartheid. There s no real change. We ’ are fighting nepotism and the fact that the workforce of about 70% or 80% are people from Parys. With the resources we have “we can t absorb everyone who ’ comes in. And the people who come in here to work for the mu- nicipality don t know the ’ community s concerns. ’ Some of these people “representing the community don t even know the ’ sections in the township.” Zamdela has more than 17 subsections Iraq – (Phase 1-5), France (also known as Harry Gwala), Taylor Park (where businesses were torched), Amelia, Mthelanja (a hostel turned into family units), Tswape, Midville, Dikhutsaneng, Success, Chris Hani, Phomolong, Queens Park, Somerspoort, Masakhane, Ext 3, Rethabile, Tswelopele, Mgababa, Lusaka...
By Wednesday the place was calm but most of the people were still drunk from the libations looted from bottle stores.
Some vowed violence in the evening but when the day wore on they retreated to their homes or helped clean the streets. The truth is that the merger “was already finalised,” says a young man who does business with the municipality and who doesn t want his name published.
’ A meeting for the finalisation “of the merger was held in Kroonstad and the council had already taken a decision. They used the signatures they “collected when Amelia was flooded and houses damaged. They asked the people “to sign the papers and to write down their details with the promise that they would give them temporary places to stay while they fixed their houses. Food and accommoda“tion were promised but instead the council passed those signatures on to the demarcation board as proof that the people of Zamdela had agreed to merge with Ngwathe Municipality.”
Asked how true this claim is, he swears the people wouldn t react on rumours alone.
’ Someone who stays here in “Zamdela was at that meeting. He leaked the minutes of that meeting to the community,” he says.
When asked what Zamdela stands to lose if the two municipalities merge, he says quite a lot. This means more top positions “will go to people in Ngwathe, as is the case in Sasolburg. The mayor of the municipality is from Parys and he doesn t know anything ’ about this place. Let me give another scenario. To call an ambulance in this “area is almost impossible. Your call goes to Bloemfontein (about 220km from Sasolburg) first. On the other side of the phone “you re speaking to someone who ’ doesn t know the area well.
’ If that person dispatches an “ambulance, how long will it take and, if it ever shows (up), how will they find an area they don t know?
’ I m talking from experience “’ here. My girlfriend was having a baby. I called an ambulance and I had to leave her alone to go to the main road to get those guys.”
Violet Tladi, who works in a Taylor Park bottle store that was looted, says: It means we ll have
“’ to queue in Parys for services.”
When minister Baloyi came out to say the people could not make a distinction between a pro“posal and an announcement the ” people thought he was being economical with the truth.
People are not stupid,” she “says. But, in any case, what is “important to us now is what we are going to eat. We don t know if we ll get paid “’ ’ at the end of the month. This strike has cost us. And what is disturbing is that the cops were also looting.”
By Wednesday some strikers had been rounded up and arrested. By the time of going to print 230 of them had been arrested and four people were reportedly dead.
The cooperative governance minister has suspended the proposed amalgamation date of Metsimaholo and Ngwathe municipalities as proposed by the demarcations board.
This, the ruling party says, is to enable the minister to engage all stakeholders in Sasolburg.