Nothing is more disturbing than seeing Lwandle shack dwellers face residents from Blackheath eye to eye, hurling racist epithets at each other. Despite our much-admired democratic elections, this confrontation demonstrates the dearth of democracy at the local level.
Adding fuel to the fire is the biased media explosion around Lwandle, giving us a foretaste of things to come. With the local government elections looming the ANC will go out of its way to make the Western Cape (WC) ungovernable, because this province is stealing the very little thunder the ruling party has when it comes to good governance.
Also journalists need to do their homework before fanning the flames about what Lwandle is really about instead of perpetuating the Independent newspapers' partisan agenda.
If stoking the fires of ethnicity is part of their "making the WC ungovernable" campaign, the ANC will unleash a conflict it will be unable to contain if television footage is anything to go by.
Flinging racial insults at each other, the Lwandle residents marching threateningly with sticks towards the coloured community of Blackheath, is the last thing this country needs. Our wars of xenophobia are far too fresh in our memories to allow this kind of ethnic mobilisation to escalate.
The issues at hand need to be placed within perspective.
Firstly, the occupied land is SANRAL property and it is their duty to control their property.
Secondly, as the property owners of the land, surely they have a responsibility to ensure that people don't occupy their land creating problems for government.
Thirdly, are there not regulations that the city should enforce should property owners defy the law?
Fourthly, since that piece of land has been earmarked for e-Tolls, what is SANRAL's agenda?
Fifthly, surely it is no coincidence that the notorious "poo-protestors" are deeply mired in this controversy, adding fuel to the "ungovernability-fire". Worse, some of the political agencies involved are even extracting a fee from the shack-dwellers to live there, exposing their political agenda for what it is worth.
With local government elections imminent, the city and province will have their work cut out for them. But, if the ANC has any sense, it would invest all its energy into improving municipal services and accountability in the provinces where they govern, instead of destroying the Western Cape's progress. Government's constitutional obligation is to support good governance, no matter who is in government. Those who destabilise should be tried for sabotage and insubordination.
The influx of all colours of people from other provinces to the Western Cape indicates that people will literally vote with their feet if they get a sense of a decline in the quality of services and a lack of bang for their buck. Potholes, dysfunctional traffic lights, and the lack of sanitation and waste management have become constant refrains from those escaping the growing deterioration of other provinces.
On all the comparative indicators revealed by the recently released The 80/20 Report: Local Government in 80 Indicators over 20 Years, the Democratic Alliance appears to govern this province better than all the other provinces, which consistently score lower than the DA-governed municipalities. This in no way means that the DA is excellent on all scores, but jealousy has made the ANC really nasty.
Instead of encouraging its opponents to excel in good governance and compete with its opponents, the ANC is intent on destroying all the hard work that goes into building a democratic state. Voter support declined in Gauteng because citizens have vociferously responded to the deteriorating infrastructure development, declining sanitation & waste management services. The number of potholes alone warranted a programme of its own on Carte Blanche!
This article first appeared in Die Burger.
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