http://www.businessday.co.za/weekender/article.aspx?ID=BD4A510788
Using violence as a voice
7 July 2007
Drastic action by the government is needed to prevent further loss of life and damage caused by disgruntled communities, writes CHANTELLE BENJAMIN
THE brutal murders of three councillors in the past month and an increasing number of attacks on local government officials by communities angry about the slow pace of service delivery , is putting pressure on the African National Congress (ANC) to show visible evidence of delivery to the poor.
The municipalities’ slow pace of service delivery was discussed at the ANC’s national executive committee lekgotla earlier this year when Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu warned that the country could face greater instability in the run-up to the 2009 general elections if the government did not meet communities’ expectations .
Sisulu said the party needed to do something drastic in the next two years to ensure that the protests that dogged the 2004 elections did not recur .
Her warning was prophetic, with protests starting even earlier than she predicted. This year there have been at least 10 protests that have forced councillors to flee for their lives; government buildings have been torched; roads have been blockaded; protesters have been injured and arrested; and three ANC councillors have been murdered.
At most of the protests, people have alleged councillors are failing to provide services, that they are corrupt, and that they employ relatives in local government posts and award housing irregularly.
Thandi Mtshweni, deputy mayor of the Govan Mbeki Municipality in Mpumalanga; Ntai Mokoena, chief whip of Metsimaholo Municipality in Free State; and Moses Mosala of Lejweleputswa Municipality in Free State, were murdered in the past month.
Mtshweni was shot three times at point-blank range on June 27 at her home, in front of her husband and her 13-year-old son. No one has been arrested .
Mosala was shot dead last Friday at his municipality’s offices in Welkom. No one has been arrested for his murder.
Mokoena was stoned and struck with an axe during violence in Deneysville in northern Free State this week after he arrived to talk to protesters who were stoning his and another councillor’s homes after they set fire to a municipal building. Police arrested 18 people .
Mokoena’s death is considered by the ANC as particularly pointless, as the Metsimaholo Municipality is the best-performing municipality in Free State in terms of service delivery. However, nearly half of its population are still living below the poverty line.
The ANC called his murder an “act of barbarity” and said it could not be tolerated in a society where law and order reigned.
“The ANC believes that while people have a right to demonstrate, taking a person’s life and vandalising property cannot be justified as ways of showing protest,” the party said in a statement earlier this week.
“No amount of dissatisfaction with the delivery of services accords people the right to kill. Unruly elements that see fit to take another person’s life do not have room in our society.”
Parliament’s chairperson of the portfolio committee on provincial and local government, Lechisa Tsenoli, says violent acts of this nature weakened valid protests by communities.
South African Local Government Association head and Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo says there is “ no justification for these actions, given the fact that our democracy provides for legitimate forms of protest”.
“Those who want to register their dissatisfaction should rightfully do so within the parameters of the law. Any action outside of such legitimate means opens the whole society to acts of anarchy and barbarism.
“We condemn any acts of vandalism, criminality and savagery allegedly pursued under the guise of service delivery concerns.”
Masondo called on communities to help municipalities to provide services and to report any form of lawlessness.
Communities’ unhappiness with local government delivery was made clear during the local government elections last year, although there were fewer protests last year than in 2005.
The most protracted and violent protest this year took place in Khutsong in North West , where residents are angry about their incorporation into the province.
In March, protesters in Boikhutso near Lichtenburg in North West were stopped by police as they marched on the home of a councillor. The protesters accused the council of nepotism and poor service delivery.
Later that month, seven protesters at Winterveld in northern Tshwane were admitted to hospital after police used rubber bullets to disperse a crowd protesting against the destruction of their government-built homes, which they said were too small to house their families.
In April, 500 residents of New Eesterus, near Hammanskraal, took to the streets to protest over water shortages.
Police and protesters clashed after the community blockaded several roads, including the Lucas Mangope highway .
Ward councillor Solomon Moima was forced to flee after he assured protesters that the council had set up three water-truck sites, four boreholes and 18 water-tank sites for the community.
Khutsong hotted up in April, with the homes of councillors being stoned, a school boycott and other violent protests.
In May, 35 people were arrested for public violence in the Tswelelang township near Wolmaranstad in North West .
Residents barricaded roads, vandalised houses and burnt tyres to protest against poor service from local authorities.
Last month, residents at the Lusaka informal settlement in Mamelodi East and the Tshetong settlement near Sebokeng in the Vaal Triangle also protested against poor service delivery.
Johan Burger, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, believes the increase in violence and criminal behaviour is the result of a growing gap between rich and poor in SA, as well as of migration to cities, which is creating burgeoning informal settlements.
“Authorities are finding it almost impossible to provide services as more people flood to the cities,” he says.
Added to this is the political and economic instability in Zimbabwe, which has led to immigrants and refugees moving south in hope of a better life .
Burger says this creates socioeconomic problems that need to be addressed by the government and civic organisations.
*******************
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20070707083523539C420583
Killer mob incited by young mums
July 07 2007 at 02:38PM
By Michael Schmidt
Three young mothers have told how they started a riot that ended with a crime that shocked the nation – the gruesome mob murder of Free State ANC town councillor Ntai Mokoena on Monday.
An icy wind cut through the rusted-iron shack settlement of Holomisa near Deneysville on the Vaal Dam as the three open-faced young women – one with a baby on her back – spoke exclusively to the Saturday Star about their role in the murder – actions they now regret.
“We had no right to kill him even if he didn’t help us,” said the woman with the baby. “For six years they [the town council] have been saying ‘we’ll come and install taps and electricity’ – but it’s empty promises.”
Hardscrabble Holomisa clings by the skin of its teeth to the promise of real housing, tarred roads, lights, water and jobs that are visible right next door, in the formal township of Refongkgotso – which, ironically, means “give us peace”.
But peace has been elusive, said the three women – a 24-year-old in a checked skirt, a 27-year-old in a grey tracksuit and a 32-year-old in a blue blanket carrying her baby. They feared to give their names, as tonight is the vigil for Mokoena and rumours of revenge are rife: “The ANC is saying someone [among us] will have to follow him into the afterlife,” one said.
Among the many causes of Monday’s deadly riot, the women said, was the fact that the council wants to remove Holomisa lock, stock and barrel to a settlement called Amelia, near Sasolburg, where they will have to pay rent they cannot afford.
“They want this place for a graveyard,” opined a gap-toothed 67-year-old man. “The dead are better off than the living.”
Monday’s murder had its roots in a meeting that local United Democratic Movement chairperson Isaac Mokhatla allegedly set up with Mokoena at the council offices in Refongkgotso to discuss the proposed relocation. Several hundred people, mostly women attended.
“But no one was there. Then Councillor Moloena arrived in his car. He saw us and just laughed and drove off,” the 24-year-old mother-of-one said. “So we closed off the street with stones so that no one could see what we were doing and we broke the gate and vandalised the place. The police came but didn’t stop us.”
Captain Stephen Thakeng, of the Deneysville police, said the local police had called for special public order policing reinforcements from Welkom, Bloemfontein and the Vaal, who later dispersed the rioters.
But in the meantime, things escalated out of control, as the 27-year-old recalled: “We went to Ntai’s house and started stoning it. We opened his gate forcefully. Ntai arrived, driving like a maniac. He drove into his yard and into the legs of one of Mokhatla’s right-hand men and collided with his wall.
“He climbed out and beat up this mentally disturbed boy who was on the march, then went inside – we think to go and get his gun. When he came out, he fired three shots in the air and got on top of his car.”
Except for the beating of the boy, this version was confirmed by a neighbour of Mokoena’s who fidgeted nervously with a tin of Zam-Buk balm as she spoke.
She said Mokoena had come across two men hiding behind his neighbour’s wall. Mokoena had stored bricks for extending his relatively upmarket home in his neighbour’s yard, and the men had been throwing the bricks through his windows.
The neighbour said Mokoena had fired a shot at the feet of the men, but unafraid, they advanced on him. The 27-year-old rioter told us, however, that the councillor had fired a shot directly at the men, “but he missed”.
“As he was cocking his gun, one of the men pushed him and he fell and lost the gun. Then the crowd came and stoned him and sang ‘Let this dog die!’. The men beat him, but the women were ululating. When I saw blood, I ran away. I’m sorry that he had to die. It was not our intention.”
With tears streaming down her face, the neighbour recalled: “I have known Ntai for seven years. He was a nice guy …”
A 15-year-old boy, one of a group of teenagers playing tricks with a football in the street near Mokoena’s house, said: “People were staring at him and not helping. He was breathing badly.” The councillor died in his wife Nofisi Radebe’s arms shortly after he arrived at the local hospital.
“Some people are happy he’s dead,” the scar-faced youth said. “They say he was a bad man because he tarred his own street only.”
Mokoena’s street, which loops off the township’s main road, is indeed tarred, while others nearby are dirt.
“We were promised houses with bathrooms inside, but it hasn’t happened,” the boy said. “But his house is being extended and he bought his son a quadbike.”
So petty jealousies over those who are better off, combined with deep anger over a lack of development and coloured by opportunistic party politics fanned the flames that led to Mokoena’s murder – and which now threaten a revenge killing.
Mokhatla’s home, perched on the very border with Holomisa, was petrol-bombed by an ANC-aligned mob following Mokoena’s murder.
On Thursday, Mokhatla and 16 other suspects appeared in the Sasolburg Magistrate’s Court facing charges of murder and public violence. But the fear and loathing is not over in Holomisa.
“With the murder, I don’t think we’ll ever get houses,” the 32-year-old said. “And with Mr Mokhatla in prison – he knew all the right tactics – who will defend us now?”