The Star: ‘Protesting is our last resort’

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‘Protesting is our last resort’

When a police Nyala drove through barriers of burning tyres and rubble that had been used to barricade the Golden Highway, Bricks Mokolo was reminded of the grim events of September 1984.

Then, the protests in the Vaal region against rent increases imposed by the Vaal council left almost 50 people dead. For Mokolo, protests on the same highway in Orange Farm struck a chord.

It was chaos where he stood. Police sirens and radios blared. Dark clouds of smoke from burning tyres billowed.

Mokolo observed the similarities in the manner in which the protests were conducted and the reaction by the police against angry protesters. But first he had to acknowledge that the demands by the communities were slightly different.

This time, only a handful of protesters were arrested, while several were wounded by rubber bullets.

“People then were fighting against discriminatory policies based on race,” he recalled. “Now it is the fight against selective development approaches between the rich and the poor.”

Over the past two weeks, Orange Farm has been a battleground, with police firing rubber bullets at stone-throwing and sjambok-wielding protesters who blockaded the highway.

It’s nothing new. Residents have made it a habit to blockade the highway with rocks and burning tyres demanding service delivery at least once every year. It has been the only way for them to focus the authorities’ attention on their plight.

“Towards the festive season, poor people face more challenges in their households than at any other period of the year,” explained Mokolo, a community leader in the area.

“People want to live and enjoy the festive season with proper infrastructure in place. They look at their neighbours living in other areas and they suddenly realise they are still deprived even in the new dispensation.”

Established in 1987, the sprawl of Orange Farm, south of Joburg, has an estimated population of more than 350 000. The area remains one of the most underdeveloped with its scenery alternating between dusty gravel roads and shackland dumping grounds.

There might have been an increase in the number of people who now have access to clean water and electricity, but sanitation, roads and houses have been elusive.

For Julia Senokoane, life has been hard for 17 years in Driezek 1, Orange Farm.

In 2004, her son, the only breadwinner and the person she had hoped would built her a house, passed away, leaving two children. Now her hopes of getting a proper house are slowing fading.

The 53 year-old lives in a derelict three-room shack with her two grandchildren and survives on the children’s monthly grant.

She couldn’t join hundreds of her neighbours who took their frustration to the streets, but she was equally angry and supported the demonstrations.

“We have tried everything possible on this earth, including signing petitions and marching peacefully to the local council offices, but nothing has changed,” says Senokoane. “All I want now is a house – one that I can sleep peacefully in with my grandchildren when it rains.”

As she continued talking, her voice rose: “For how long shall we wait to see a promise of a better life fulfilled?” she asked.

“We have had enough of empty promises by the government, and neglect as though we don’t exist at all.”

Mokolo believes the lack of service delivery has brought new hardships in many households in Orange Farm. “This is a silent war that is ravaging families and tearing households apart. People are frustrated,” he added.

People, he continues, were dying silently in their homes. “We last saw these kinds of community revolts in the 1980s. The amount of anger I have seen here has made me think we could be taken back.”

Mokolo’s memories of random violence and frustration, with people destroying their own communities, are vivid because he took part in the Vaal uprisings.

He saw the riots damage many households in other ways. They sent many of his comrades on different paths.

He could, he said, have joined those who now sit in council chambers and drive around in expensive 4x4s, but he chose to be with the poor, where the struggle was yet to end.

The 49-year-old has been instrumental in educating and organising the Orange Farm community to stand up and fight for their right to decent living conditions and housing delivery.

Still, Aviva Manqa, spokesperson for Gauteng Housing MEC Nomvula Mokonyane, insists the government has continuously engaged the community on its plans to deliver houses in the area.

“It is strange to us that despite public meetings being held where we have constantly reported back to the community about our comprehensive plans for development, they still go out and protest,” he states. “People need to understand that before service delivery of houses, there is a lot of paperwork that has to be done.”

He believes the government’s suspicion of a “third force” being involved in the protests was justified, a view Moloko dismisses as “apartheid-style rhetoric”.

Manqa states that part of the challenge the government faces in faster delivery of houses in the area was because some of the land was still in private hands.

In addition, he says, the provincial government has to wait for the approval of designs for housing by the City of Johannesburg.

“Once the designs are approved we will appoint a service provider for the sewer system. Hopefully this will happen soon.”

But Professor Sheila Meintjies, of Wits University’s political studies department, notes that the underlying message in all the service delivery protests is that poor people are frustrated, depressed and felt the government has failed to live up to its promises.

“There has been a growing problem of discontent among the poor communities because unemployment is very high and people can’t budge from extreme levels of poverty,” she says.

Meintjies adds that frustration among communities in informal settlement was brought about by a desire to see the better life they had been promised since 1994.

Hosiah Hlole, 74, who took part in the protests this week, says blockading the highway had become the only mechanism available for the community to get the authorities’ attention.

“Since 2004 no one has ever bothered to come and explain to us what their plans are for developing this area,” he says. “We will return to the streets to continue until something is done.”

Musi Kubheka, a member of the area’s street committee, which was set up to fight crime, says that despite several pleas made to local authorities for the provision of street lights, nothing had happened.

“The reasons they gave us for failing to deliver on their promises in the past years have been vague, and that is not what we want at the moment,” says Kubheka.

“The people want to hear a clear plan to develop their area with timeframes on when these developments will be taking place.”

“It is not like they are saying they want to overthrow the government,” reasons Mokolo. “They are merely saying ‘we want toilets’.”

* This article was originally published on page 8 of The Star on September 20, 2008

Star

Published on the Web by IOL on 2008-09-20 08:51:00