Hillside Digital

I am the son of a farmer from Balfour, inside the Gert Sibande municipal district of Mpumalanga, South Africa. .
Toward the end of July 2009, the residents of Siyathemba had had enough. Their anger finally boiled over, riots erupted. They were fed up with being ignored and being exploited. Frankly, I am surprised it had not happened earlier.
In June 2008 my dad and his partner began the process of selling the farm. It was their intention to sell it to the government who would then transfer it to the men and women working on the farm as part of the government’s land redistribution policy.
At the time I was busy researching the decline of discipline and the rise of violence in government schools. I recalled the frustration my father carried trying to get the municipality to meet their obligations: repair the sewerage works that he allowed to be built on his land and manage it responsibly. His dams were destroyed, thousands of fish had been long dead and the surrounding grazing areas were declared unsuitable for animal grazing. Other stories of incompetence, neglect and corruption started to come together in my head, pieces of conversation and rumour. I decided to return home to find out for myself how bad it all really was.

My dad has been in legal battles with the municipality over the sewerage treatment works at his own expense since the first complaint was made in 1999. Agencies such as the Rand Water Board and the department of water affairs and forestry have been fully aware of the contamination and its repercussions for years. Ironically, below is the opening paragraph on the water and forestry website’s ‘About Us,’ page. To date, the department has taken no action against the municipality or its contractors operating the works.
‘The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry is the custodian of South Africa’s water and forestry resources. It is primarily responsible for the formulation and implementation of policy governing these two sectors. It also has override responsibility for water services provided by local government.’
I have known John for many years - kind, honest, friendly and hard working. John was our gardener at the time; it was only on this trip that I asked him what was really going on in his private life. His three young children were unable to eat or complete their homework because of the stench permeating their shack, often driving them to tears. It was not a new problem, he and many others had been complaining for the last nine years. He didn’t want to say too much for fear of retribution from those in the municipality who do not welcome criticism. The sewerage works were only one of the injustices plaguing his life.
John’s home is a shack on the outskirts of town made of tin sheets, wood and mud. John’s “low cost house” is in the front of his plot; I assumed it was still under construction. According to the contractor, the house was complete, the keys were handed over and the contractor went off into the sunset; paid in full. This ‘home’ had been under construction for the last year and a half. The kitchen had barely enough space for the single metal basin and no room for a fridge. There is little room for his children to sleep. Outside was a bare trench where water pipes were supposed to be. Cracks ran up and down the naked walls, gaps could be seen between the wall and ceiling, the floor uneven and bare. I could smell the stench from the sewerage works as he showed me these things. It is not difficult to imagine his sense of hopelessness. John chuckled, “Maybe we are born to suffer until life ends, there is nothing I can do.”
John was earning R1, 200 a month at the time; he believed he was promised a subsidy from the government. The contractor had also promised John he’d receive one from the municipality once the house was built. The municipality refused to honour the subsidy. They would not help the people of town as, ‘they have money,’ their priority was focused on the rural areas.
John was forced to pay the full mortgage interest; Standard Bank had been deducting R600 every month. John sighed bitterly; how was he supposed to support himself and his family on the remaining R600 a month? A portion of which had to be paid to the municipality for services that didn’t exist; the promised road improvements, streetlights, refuse removal, access to drinking water; anything a municipality has responsibility over.
Neighbours noticed us and came over. I explained that we were making a film about the sewerage works and the municipality. They complained that the municipality wanted R40, 000 per piece of land in this neighbourhood; just for the land. They complained that they couldn’t qualify for a home loan because they didn’t earn a minimum of R20, 000. They also complained bitterly of having to pay the municipality fees for services that did not exist.
“They promised to install street lights for the children, they promised to fix the roads and give us clean water. We cry.”
“Why do you cry?” I asked.
“The stink that comes from there,” both men pointed to the illegal dumping ground of raw sewerage less than seven hundred meters away. “When the wind blows this way, it stinks so much that we cry, we complain but they never listen.”
Their list was long and their hope for better living conditions was little. I asked John what he thought they could do to resolve the crisis. He shrugged and chuckled, “Maybe we should burn it, I don’t know, what else we can do? We’ve tried everything but they won’t listen. But we’ll wait, let’s see what happens after next year’s election.”
Joanna is in her fifties and works as a house cleaner; she lives in a shack with her extended family on rural land ten minutes drive from the town. The river that flows by and its surrounding land had been declared unfit for animal consumption. The river meanders through farmland and eventually feeds into Gauteng’s water supply. The windmill a government contractor installed for the people living here gathers rust.
I visited her home at sunrise to see what their morning routine was like. Joanna stood near their wood fuelled stove, water and porridge on the boil. Her son, daughter in law and grandchildren huddled close to it for heat. She has to support her entire family; her children excluding Bafana, weren’t able to find work. Not an easy feat on the minimal salary she earns. Joanna applied for an RDP house in 1994. Two years ago she gave up on the Balfour Municipality and re-applied in Heidelberg. She was still waiting. She came close to tears as she talked of her illness since the death of her husband six years ago and her inability to find adequate healthcare.
The closest government hospital is in Heidelberg; a 30km drive from Balfour. The residents are not allowed to go there for medical attention as Heidelberg is in Gauteng. Instead they are forced to seek medical care in Standerton 80km away.
Joanna talked of the mud and worms that came from the nearby windmill installed some time ago by a municipality contractor, and that was when it worked (The contractor came one day to install the windmill and was never to be seen again). Joanna and her neighbours were now making use of a water tank my dad installed. She talked of the enormous weight on her shoulders in trying to cope with the pressure of supporting her family; it was and is a struggle to survive.
Later that day I found John, Bafana, Lucky and others standing on a trailer skinning and carving up a cow that had died from some or other sickness. I began filming the guys meticulously skinning it, bleeding it out and removing its entrails. I asked them why if they knew the cow that had died of sickness.
They chuckled, “Meat is too expensive, we have to eat.”
Talking to Martha’s grandson; Lucky, he told me how he wished he could’ve finished school and gone on to become a social worker to be of service to his community. He was forced to drop out of school in order to get a job as a casual labourer on the farm picking up corn. His father had abandoned his family years ago and so it was up to him to support his mother and brothers. I asked him what he thought the government could do to make life a little easier.

“The poor people needs shelter… first of all, they do need food to eat, clothes to wear, then the last, and we need the job. Yes…maybe if the whole country knew how we are suffering here, maybe we can get help, because we are staying in the shack house, mud house and all these things. At the end of the day we are left behind. We have no one to talk to about the things that are happening here, we have no electricity, some of us are used to fetching water from the fountains. They don’t have taps; they don’t have things that will transform their lives from poor to better one. Maybe we could get tar roads. Maybe we can get ambulances, basic needs of a person to live.”
I visited the town’s library that is part of the municipal buildings in the centre of town. It is here that I found copies of the Auditors General report dating back to 2003. I knew that many rural municipalities complained of being under-funded and had precious little resources to speed up transformation and so studied the reports to see if this may have been the case. Every category listed on every page of the report had comments such as; ‘Due to lack of document retention policy and procedures…I could not verify the accuracy, completeness and validity of…’ and, ‘auditors could not express an opinion.’
If one likened the auditor generals’ report to a departmental review of a private company, that department would have failed dismally; instant dismissals would’ve resulted. The municipality had not been able to account for up to four million Rand in just about every audit. This is a staggering amount for a municipality that oversees an estimated population of just over 50 000.
An ex councillor, who wished to remain anonymous talked of his frustration with local politics. Council meetings were plagued by in fighting and opposition representatives were sidelined and ignored. It mattered little if they were trying to improve the lives of their constituents. Proposals and appeals were shut down or ignored. There was an overwhelming feeling that if it didn’t directly benefit the ruling individuals or their friends, it was blocked. Sentiments echoed by the townspeople who felt helpless to do anything about it. In an effort to emphasize his point, the ex councillor took me on a tour of Siyathemba. He pointed out the few RDP houses that had been completed. These new houses all had cracks’ webbing their walls and looked as though they were twenty years old. The dirt road snaking through the township was marred with potholes making it very bumpy. We came to a stop in front of a massive luxury house under construction surrounded by shacks. This is the mayor’s house. I heard allegations from a number of people that a contractor was building this house as gift for the mayor in return for being awarded the contract to build RDP houses. It was impossible to prove these allegations for lack of a paper trail. However, it is clear that the mayor is exploiting the spirit of RDP housing. Plots of land allocated for RDP housing, has been taken by a mayor, who is earning more than thirty thousand rand a month (excluding benefits such as travel, medical aid etc) and is now benefiting from reduced taxes meant for the extreme poor.

August 2009
Residents of Siyathemba were tired of being ignored and exploited; they handed over a memorandum to the municipality on July 8. When the municipality failed to respond, the youth could not and would not contain their anger and frustration any longer. On Sunday 19 July protests became violent and local police were forced to use rubber bullets to disburse the angry crowd, among the casualties were a fifteen-year old boy and a young mother. Seventy-five people were arrested.
I need to point out the following; the majority of residents living in the area do not support xenophobia. The looting and attacks were targeted at officials running the municipality and the district into the ground. Any damage and violence masking as xenophobic attacks, were carried out by a minority criminal element exploiting the outbursts of anger and frustration of the community.
It has been a year, since I last visited Balfour and nothing has changed. The farm lies empty due to all manner of reasons. Raw sewerage is still dumped on open land not far from John’s home and less than five hundred meters from a fruit juice export company. I can only hope they’re not using the local water supply.
John’s house is finally completed; an electrical extension cord runs from the house to the shack that is being used as their kitchen. John is still trying to find a job in town, and he is more desperate than I’ve seen him before. He and his neighbours are still waiting for improved roads and streetlights. Joanna is still waiting for her RDP house.
A few days ago I tuned into Redi Direko’s show on Radio 702.
http://www.pod702.co.za/podcast/bestofredi/20090730BESTREDIB.mp3

Her guest was Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka;
http://www.thetimes.co.za/Careers/Article.aspx?id=1031667

They were discussing service delivery protests erupting around the country. (I admit that I have neither heard of Minister Sicelo Shiceka nor did I know there was such a thing as Minister of Co-operative Governance. I now know it’s a new title replacing Minister of provincial and local government. Redi asked the question thousands of us want the answer to; what can people do if they feel their leaders are lazy or corrupt and most importantly, will anyone listen too their voices?
It was clear that the violent protests finally caught the government’s attention. President Zuma made a surprise visit the following Tuesday. I wish I could write, ‘President Zuma paid a surprise visit to the rural town Balfour in Mpumalanga after receiving numerous complaints made by locals in writing.’ They have written, but none were answered.
President Zuma pays a surprise visit.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1044925

I asked a number of people what they thought of the president’s visit. The response was mixed. Some thought it was yet another promise that would not be honoured, such is their despair after years of broken promises. Others were delighted; finally they have a president; a man of the people that would finally take measures to improve their lives.
The complaints though have worsened and the people are more desperate. I spoke to a community liaison officer who told me that her workers were being paid R60 a day to replace a water pipe delivering water to the township. One of the men looked to be in his sixties, he said it was impossible to support his family including his grandchildren on so small a salary. Even a high ranking police officer complained about the municipality. His complaint was that the municipality had never checked his water and electricity meters and were charging him any amount they plucked from the sky.
I truly hope that at long last the national government will see to their legitimate grievances for if they do not, it will not matter who denounces violent protests; tyres will burn.
Look at Balfour Mpumalanga as a microcosm of what is being repeated throughout the rural areas of our country and a dire big picture emerges. Questions need to be asked and addressed as a matter of national security. Not only on the state of service delivery, corruption and cronyism (very much in the headlines of late) but other questions too:
How safe is the water flowing through the taps of Johannesburg?
What is the state of our national water resources?
If the department of water affairs and forestry cannot take a government agency such as a municipality to court, who is protecting South Africa’s natural resources?
http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/263.1

If the Auditor General has consistently found serious irregularities and possible criminal conduct in a particular municipality over a number of years, why aren’t investigations being launched?
http://www.agsa.co.za/

How many farms are lying dormant in the country and how is it contributing toward the looming food crisis?
http://sacsis.org.za/site/news/detail.asp?idata=194&iChannel=1&nChannel=news&iCat=1434

If townships do not have adequate clinics with doctors, how prepared is South Africa to combat viruses such as the H1N1 virus and influenza such as bird flu?

Hot topic: Unemployment in South Africa – an update
Sherwin Gabriel
Read the full article at: http://web.up.ac.za/Default.asp?ipkCategoryID=10999&subid=10999#hottopic

On July 28, 2009, Statistics South Africa announced that the unemployment rate increased marginally to 23.6 percent in the second quarter of the year, compared to 23.5 percent in the preceding quarter. Both the number of employed and unemployed persons declined, by 325 000 and 59 000 respectively. This translates into the labor force participation rate decreased to 56.3 percent in the second quarter of the year, from 56.5 percent in the first.
Although most industries suffered job losses in the second quarter, individuals employed by private households (typically domestic workers and household gardeners) were affected the most. These groups are the most vulnerable, as their employment is largely dependent on their employers’ income, most of whom are clearly cutting their discretionary spending. Also, individuals employed by private households tend to have low levels of education, which render them unskilled for a considerable number of vacancies. Around 105 000 such jobs were lost, constituting a drop of 8.1 percent over the quarter. This undoubtedly will have a severe impact on these individuals and their dependants.
Among formal industries, the trade sector had 59 000 job losses, a 2 percent quarterly decline. The transport sector shed 30 000 jobs over the quarter, while agriculture had 28 000 fewer workers. Other industries had a net decrease of 41 000 employees.
The over 160 000 jobs lost in formal industries will impact significantly on tax revenues collected by SARS. The new SARS commissioner, Oupa Magashula, already reports that revenue collection is R20 billion behind target. In turn, this will affect the extent of government spending, especially in terms of social security and unemployment insurance, as well as levels of government debt. Job losses also translate into lower domestic demand, as reflected by low levels of retail and vehicle sales growth, and lower savings. These lead to more retrenchments and the cycle repeats itself, all reinforcing slower economic growth.
The economically inactive population – essentially, the working age population that are not working nor looking for employment – has increased by 419 000 individuals between the first and second quarters of 2009. Of those, 302 000 individuals have been added to the number of discouraged work seekers.
Discouraged work seekers, a specific category of the economically inactive population, are defined as unemployed persons willing and able to work, but who have not taken active steps to find employment or start a business for any of the following reasons:
- No jobs in the area
- Unable to find work requiring their skills
- Lost hope of finding any kind of work.
Clearly, many more unemployed individuals are disheartened by the economic situation and their prospects of finding employment. Over the past year, the number of discouraged work seekers has grown by 40 percent.
Discouraged work seekers are usually included in the unemployed figures to obtain the unemployment rate (expanded definition). Statistics South Africa generally does not explicitly report this, but the available numbers suggest that this figure is 29.7 percent for the second quarter of 2009.
Some might find comfort in the fact that the official unemployment rate only increased by 0.1 percentage points. However, the higher number of discouraged work seekers is potentially more risky than an increase in official unemployment. The number of discouraged work-seekers does not include those who are studying, leading to a potentially precarious situation where these individuals do not take steps to improve their employability, and therefore feel that the state has failed them. This is likely breeding a culture of discontent among individuals, especially among young people who have never really had the opportunity to be economically productive, leading in turn to the types of violent protests seen over the last few weeks.