In my recent visit to Mdantsane,
I was happy to see that the government was putting tar on the street
opposite my home. My wild horse ( Sikanisi) struggled to get into
the yard because of the digging done by the workers.
The workers helped open the
road for me so that I can park Sikanisi inside the yard.
To my shock my brother, and
his friends were not happy with this act. They shrugged it off as an act
of sucking up.
I later learnt that only
one person in my area was employed in the street tarring project.
Everyone was taken from other areas.
When I say my area I am
talking about 12 streets with more than 100 houses.
To add insult to injury the person employed is a "senior youth"
who is older than 35 years.
I know of more than 10 young
people who are unemployed in the area excluding my two younger brothers who are
both over 21 years-old.
On Wednesday while
cooking goat meat with a group of young men, a peer who is said to be connected
to the ANC told us that they were employing more people for
further paving of the road.
To my surprise not even a single
person out of the 6 unemployed young people moved an inch.
I quickly told them I will
not dish out the meat until they come back from the meeting.
To assure them I further
told them that the old men (Amaxhego) in the community were still sleeping and
the meat cannot be dished out until they are awake.
I got a shocking response
from a close friend. He said: " Hay suka saluka ezi kaka ze ANC ziqeshana
ebusuku zakugqiba zivuke zisibizele amasimba e community
meeting."
What was a light early
morning conversation about women and cars turned into a serious debate
about the faults the ANC has made in my community.
The guys started among
others, questioning the procedure followed when putting tar on the road
and why was it a rush job.
They also talked about the
relationship between the employed people and the councilor and other senior ANC
officials in the community.
From the insults, and complaints that
came out of our conversation I realised these young people have lost confidence
in government.
They have also lost confidence in
their neighbours who are ANC members.
The ANC was using employment
as a tool to divide poor because the unemployed people were blaming the employed
for "coming from far and taking jobs in their area," they said.
This made me wonder,
- is the road paving as the last resort of spending money in the current financial year?
- Will the tarred road be of quality or it is likely to be washed away by the summer rain and Sikanisi will not be able to set his four feet on it?
- Who is really benefiting from it?
- If my younger brothers could not benefit from the expanded public works programme in front of their home where and when will they benefit from it?
- When the ANC says jobs for all does "all" means only its members?
If things continue to be
like this I will also join the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in praying for
the demise of the ANC.
And as they say Hlonipha
umthandazo wegqwirha no Mhedeni, I am the latter. LET US PRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
