Dear Metro Residents
The rapid escalation and intensity of the unrest in Qebera/Walmer township area comes as no surprise and a very clear message is now being sent to those who control the Nelson Mandela metro (Bay protest gets ugly, The Herald, 31 may 2012). This is the price we will increasingly have to pay as a result of imprudently managing the expectations of the masses. For nearly twenty years now, these impoverished communities, desperate for the much promised “better life for all” face a bitter daily struggle to even put a crust of bread on their tables to feed their families, still living in shacks (many with no running water), and with nearly 38 000 households across our metro still having to suffer the continued daily indignity of being compelled to use the despised bucket system.
That our communities should be forced to resort to such drastic methods in an anguished cry to be heard after so many years of democracy serves as a grim reminder to the ruling party that their lofty promises amount to not a row of beans given that the majority of their time locally is taken up with continued bitter infighting and expediently defending the honour of a president who has hardly covered himself in glory since his inauguration.
Obviously, no reasonable person would expect that the ANC could possibly have cleared hundreds of years of infrastructural backlogs and inequalities in twenty years but surely we could have done better. The ANC have progressively taken their eye off the ball since President Mandela retired as president and we as a nation have been forced to watch a prosperous, thriving country with sound infrastructure slide slowly into the abyss of mismanagement, corruption and theft.
Closer to home, our city administration continues to try and balance the budget as it cannot be passed unless fully cash backed. This has resulted in additional budget cuts of nearly R200 million having to be found. In spite of this and in spite of the huge cash challenges facing our metro, we remain indifferent to the needs of our communities by continuing to press ahead with spending money on what amounts to clearly non-essential spending. Soccer sponsorships alone amount to around R60 million with R11.8M having been spent on PSL matches played at the Mandela Bay Stadium. The mayoral committee right now is still considering to spend R20M on a second rate PSL side Maritzburg United and an additional R30M is proposed to be spent on hosting AFCON Cup matches (Metro splashing out big money might not help stadium, The Herald, 31 May 2012).
We continue to display an inherent inability to effectively manage our debt collection, particularly significant amounts still owed to the city by provincial government. In council yesterday it was revealed that amongst other debts, Bhisho now owes this city more than R100 million for healthcare services that we have paid for but that should have been provided by the province. Another R50 million is owed for library services (this remains an unfunded mandate which may never be recovered). Add to this approximately R 33 million also owed to us by Kouga Municipality and a picture begins to emerge that the problem is not always that we do not have the money but rather it is our inability to collect what is owed and our inability to spend what we have wisely that results in the current rioting being experienced in Qebera.
The solutions to the many problems currently facing our metro are solutions that need to be found by working together in a genuine spirit of co-operation. For too many years now we witness at council meetings how the ruling party rejects any opposition party motion brought to council in the interests of all communities only to see the same motion brought back months later by the ANC with slightly different wording. One of my colleagues recently brought a motion to council in a genuine plea for help to assist a community in Motherwell who have been struggling unsuccessfully to have their electrical appliances replaced after a power surge. This motion was rejected by the ANC who were not even prepared to hear it.
If this is how we plan to best serve our communities within this metro, then I fear for us all.
Warm Ward 2 Regards
Dean Biddulph
Related: Strangely Enough I Find Myself Sympathising With Walmer Township Protesters.
Alan Straton
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