South Africa: "Freedom is not enough"

Today's Guardian has an interesting story on growing unrest in South Africa. The national economy is doing well:

Paradoxically the country is richer and more stable than ever before. Growth is touching 6%, consumer confidence is surging and the country's credit rating has been upgraded. A budget deficit of just 0.5% of GDP is the lowest for 25 years. Sales of vehicles and property are breaking records thanks to a growing black middle class.

But Rory Carroll in Khutsong reports of Townships in revolt as ANC fails to live up to its promises. Beatings, shootings and petrol bombs have seen some areas return to violence in what was once the ANC's heartland, "the sprawls of shacks and low-cost homes where millions of impoverished black people live":

The cause of unrest is economic. People are fed up waiting for jobs and basic services such as electricity, clean water and sanitation. The service delivery protests, as they are known, flared last year and have grown in frequency and passion in the run-up to local elections on March 1. Khutsong, a township of 170,000, 40 miles from Johannesburg, has seen some of the worst trouble.

"We used to like the ANC because it brought freedom. But freedom is not enough," said Solly Nyathi, an unemployed 18-year-old. As well as jobs and decent schools, he said, his community wanted fly-blown tin shacks replaced with decent houses. "Until we get that it will be dangerous for the ANC."

He said the ANC mayor would be killed if he entered the town. He pointed to the blackened shell of a councillor's home. "The protests are not over."

As PM Blair might say - much done, much more to do.

Comments

[Gabriel]

Maybe the economy is doing well despite the government, not because of it.

If people are reduced to rioting over public utilities then the issue is not economic but managerial, I fear.

[Guy]

Although slow service delivery is an issue down here, and communities do occasionally protest about such issues, it is worth noting that the Khutsong uprisings are primarily due to the community fearing a reversal in service delivery. The town is being reclassified from the relatively affluent, entirely urban/suburban Gauteng to the poor, mainly ex-homeland, rural North West province. The central concern appears to be decreased future access to services, slower delivery and less accountability, rather than a total lack of such to date. While there is indeed much more to do in South Africa and service delivery protests do exist, this is a poor example to use to highlight the issue.

[VimaX]

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