Business day: Voices of poor must be heard

The Hangberg community is politically divided and has not taken a collective decision to join the PPA or any other organisation.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=124776

Voices of poor must be heard

THE increase in township service delivery protests across SA, and their tendency to descend into chaos and violence, has generally been interpreted as a wake-up call for the tripartite alliance

THE increase in township service delivery protests across SA, and their tendency to descend into chaos and violence, has generally been interpreted as a wake-up call for the tripartite alliance, which dominates government in most parts of the country.

Yet there is little evidence that rising unhappiness among the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) natural constituency is translating into electoral losses on any meaningful scale. Where the ANC has lost ground in local government by-elections, this has largely been a result of the consolidation of opposition support and low African voter turnouts, rather than a mass defection of traditional ANC supporters.

While it is clear that the swing vote among Cape Town’s coloured population lost faith in the ANC following the disastrous mayoral tenure of Nomaindia Mfeketo and removal of Ebrahim Rasool as premier, this was never an established ANC constituency. Opinion polls show that although African voters’ perception of the Democratic Alliance (DA) has improved over the years — leader Helen Zille scores highly on efficiency and incorruptibility — that has not meant many new black votes for the party.

While the DA seems likely to continue making gradual progress among minority groups and the emerging black middle class, liberal hopes that widespread disenchantment following 16 years of African nationalist governance would prompt the masses to buy into the DA’s concept of the equal opportunity society have not yet been fulfilled. Rather than seek alternatives to the ANC within the multiparty system, there is a countrywide trend away from engagement with elected representatives and administrative structures and towards forming unaffiliated community-based organisations and pressure groups with little interest in elections.

The implication for the ANC is that while its control over the levers of power and patronage is not under immediate threat, it finds itself under attack on a broad new front that ranges from street protests and barricaded roads to sophisticated legal challenges undertaken on communities’ behalf by nongovernmental organisations in civil society.

Whereas the alliance partners have traditionally had an iron grip on poor African communities in urban areas, their alienation due to widespread corruption and a general lack of accountability has resulted in this control being gradually lost. The ANC’s attempt to capitalise on the recent clash between the Cape Town authorities and residents of Hout Bay’s Hangberg community was rebuffed, for instance, with residents preferring to protest, march, litigate and eventually negotiate under the banner of the Poor People’s Alliance, a coalition of independent social movements including the Landless People’s Movement, the Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Rural Network and Abahlali baseMjondolo.

The latter grouping, which represents shack-dwellers and has its origins in KwaZulu-Natal, has a history of going head-to- head with the government over service delivery issues, having clashed violently with the ANC in Durban’s Kennedy Road settlement a little over a year ago after successfully challenging the constitutionality of the KwaZulu- Natal Slums Act. The ANC did not take kindly to its authority being questioned, ensuring that Kennedy Road was “liberated” from its elected representatives.

Abahlali has also been responsible for a series of protests over slow housing provision in informal settlements around the country, most recently in Cape Town. These often involve disruptive street barricades, the stoning of cars and chaotic marches, with police invariably resorting to rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.

It has become a case of neglected and deprived communities versus the establishment, regardless of which party is in office, and politicians across the board seem at a loss as to how to respond, other than with force.

Having been rebuffed by the Hangberg community after it tried to hijack a protest march organised in the wake of a violent clash with police and council officials intent on breaking down structures built illegally in a firebreak, the ANC and its allies are now on the warpath against Abahlali in Cape Town too. Union federation Cosatu released a statement earlier this month condemning its methods and calling on “progressive” residents to “distance themselves from mindless violence and calls for chaos that harm the poor and working class and their organisations”.

The DA cannot afford to indulge in schadenfreude though. As much as the growth of organisations such as Abahlali is putting the ANC on the spot, the phenomenon is a clear indication that our democracy is not working for everyone, and this is bad news for all South Africans. The political establishment as a whole needs to engage with alienated poor communities and find some way of ensuring their voices are heard, including reviewing the electoral system to make elected representatives more accountable.

The growth of groups such as Abahlali baseMjondolo is a clear indication that our democracy is not working for everyone