From ghetto to fabulous - inequality highlighted by local elections

The disparities between South Africa's mainly middle-class beneficiaries of economic transformation and their less well-off countrymen has been brought into focus during the run-up to local government elections on 1 March. Sporadic violent protest against the slow pace of service delivery across the country over the last two years has highlighted the anger and resentment among those living on the margins of society, nearly 12 years after the end of apartheid. In the municipality of Phumalela, in the central Free State province, that frustration spilled over into clashes with the police in late 2004. People in the nearby town of Harrismith also joined in the demonstrations, which left one person dead and several injured. The most visible beneficiaries of South Africa's ongoing transformation are black executives and economic empowerment consortiums, who have taken stakes in major banks, telecommunication companies and mining houses. So while black executives - or buppies as they're known - fret about whether to upgrade their BMWs, houses and cell phones, the majority of the people in places like Phumalela's townships worry about whether their pit latrines have filled up. The majority of black South Africans remain trapped in what President Thabo Mbeki described as the 'second economy' when he referred to the problem of 'two nations in one country' as far back as 1998 when he was deputy president. He said then: "South Africa is a country of two nations. One of these nations is white, relatively prosperous, regardless of gender or geographic dispersal. It has ready access to developed economic, physical, educational, communication and other infrastructure ... The second and larger nation of South Africa is black and poor, with the worst affected being women in the rural areas, the black rural population in general and the disabled." As more and more people of colour break into corporate South Africa, and a select politically-connected few take ownership of capital, Mbeki's government has refined his two nations concept. The situation has been framed within an economic context, and he now speaks of "two economies in one country". One is advanced, sophisticated and diversified, based on skilled labour which has become more globally competitive; the other is mainly informal, marginalised, and unskilled populated by those who are unemployable or under-employed by the formal sector. Those trapped in the 'second economy' have yet to see the benefits of South Africa's relatively robust economic growth. They live in informal settlements, in shacks constructed of sheet metal and wood, often without electricity and water. They appear to have little hope for a better life, and have become increasingly agitated at the slow delivery of the houses, jobs and services promised when the ANC came to power in 1994. The protests in the Free State woke up national and provincial government to the consequences of bureaucratic inertia. Provincial government stepped in almost immediately, but many questioned why it had become necessary for residents to re-enact scenes of apartheid resistance - erecting burning barricades and throwing stones at police - before their government would listen to them. Two years on, Phumalela municipality is a place of change; a number of important service delivery and administration functions have been taken over by a provincial government representative and a team of consultants. Cash was also injected into basic infrastructure development and maintenance. The Phumalela municipality is home to 54,000 people, but the geographic spread of the three main towns - Warden, Memel and Vrede - has not helped officials trying to deliver basic services. "We are thinly spread," said a senior official, who asked not to be named. "We don't [have enough] people." A TALE OF THREE TOWNSHIPS The problems that beset Phumalela municipality are typical of many other towns and cities across the country.

If you've got it, flaunt it

A senior council official told IRIN that the 2004 protests highlighted four main problem areas: service delivery, sanitation, water safety and housing. In September 2004 the provincial government intervened and the municipality was placed under Project Consolidate, a national programme for problem municipalities. Money was made available by the provincial government for interventions such as refuse collection. "Our fleet is old, so money was made available to get the fleet back on the road," the official said. Gravel roads in the townships were also upgraded. Although housing is a provincial mandate, it is the role of municipalities to identify beneficiaries for the state's housing programme and to forward these to the department of local government. This processes was prioritised and an allocation of 150 housing units was made for the Zamani township in Memel. Water quality was also a problem, as at the time the area had experienced low rainfall and water resources were depleted. Alternative sources of water were identified, such as old dams and boreholes. Residents also complained about the irregular electricity supply and the council reacted by servicing its transformers and installing new underground cabling for its mini-stations to supply Warden and its surrounding areas. The national electricity supplier, Eskom, was engaged to end the interruptions of electricity supply to the township of Thembalihle in Vrede. However, one issue continues to impact on service delivery - the shortage of qualified staff. The provincial government's intervention in Phumalela was initially meant to last three months, but has been ongoing since late 2004. "This is because the consultants were meant to capacitate staff, but with no staff to speak of there's no-one to capacitate," said a senior official. As a result, the consultants have increasingly assumed the duties and functions of council staff in key areas such as finance, administration and operations. But despite the impact these interventions have had on the municipality's ability to deliver services, there's still much to do, the official noted. MUCH TO DO About 3,600 homes are still using the bucket system of sewage collection in Vrede and Warden, out of 10,000 households, with an average household consisting of six people. "We have projects in place in our business plans and we hope to do away with the bucket system by 2007 and improve sanitation services. Those plans need to be approved by national government (the province has already approved them)," the official added. In the Zamani township, IRIN spoke to some of the beneficiaries of the state housing programme. Selina Khanye, 28, takes care of her two younger siblings, Lebo aged six and Maki aged 11, as her 54-year-old mother Janetta lives in a rural homestead. "I've been waiting for this house since 2001," she said, pointing to the skeleton of a her new home, yet to have a roof, windows, and doors installed. The family currently lives in a tiny one-room shack with a leaking roof on their allocated stand, and Selina just about supports her family with her wages as a domestic worker. She earns just over US $100 a month, enough to put food on the table and pay for bus fare but not much else. "I can't afford to buy clothes for them or anything else, just food," Selina said. Without having completed high school and with no skills to speak of, Selina said she would have had no chance of affording a house on the commercial market. "So I am very happy for this house they are building for me," she said. However, she will have to live with her ventilated pit latrine for some time as piped sanitation has yet to reach Zamani. Compare Selina's salary to those of upwardly mobile black executives - whose annual incomes start from approximately $50,000 for a newly qualified chartered accountant, increases to about $100,000 after a few years of experience, and reaches around $170,000 and above at senior executive level. The disparity appears to give credence to arguments that South Africa's formerly race-based society has become largely class-based - a system which reinforces the marginalisation of the poor. A little way down a muddy and rocky dirt road in Zamani is Rosslina Tshabalala, who can't quite remember her age but says she's in her sixties. Her shack is alive with flies - the pit latrine has filled up and nobody in her household knows quite what to do about that. Inside her home, newspapers serve as wallpaper and the sheet metal roof lets rain pool on the dirt floor of the smoky interior. It's a bleak situation, but Rosslina has hope. Just in front of her humble abode is the skeleton of a new house. She is also one of the beneficiaries of the housing programme being rolled out in Zamani.

George and Elizabeth Madisha at their newly constructed shack at a squatter camp near Johannesburg

All those of working-age in her family are unemployed. Her husband lost his legs in an accident and receives a disability grant, so does Rosslina. She can't say what ails her exactly, all she knows is that she once had an operation in her chest and that she has a problem with her lungs. But she does believe life is about to change for the better, "I will love it if my house can be finished soon," said the mother of four. "I would love to have a tap, to have electricity and I would love to have a flushing toilet," she added. The people in Phumalela seem to bare out the results of a recent Markinor/Sunday Times survey of voting patterns. Despite their anxiety at the slow pace of delivery on key issues such as housing, they largely intend to vote for the party of liberation. "I'll vote for the government again to help me with the things I need, like the toilet and everything else. [Because] I'm very happy about what the government is doing now [to meet my needs]," she said. The needs of the people of Phumalela are basic and simple, but they depend largely on the state to meet them. This fact, coupled with the shock of violent protests against the ANC government for failure to deliver, has made the 2006 local government elections one of the most closely watched in recent years. In Johannesburg's upmarket Sandton CBD, which seems a world away from the poverty of Zamani, advertising boards on lampposts along Fifth Street proclaim the availability of black professional talent. "Coloured [mixed-race] Males, Black Females ... We've Got Them!" the boards shout - an indication of how the South African economy has opened up. Tumi Maruping, chief executive of the Focus Kamoso recruitment agency, told IRIN that "things have changed drastically" since apartheid restrictions on black economic activity were repealed. Now demand for black talent outweighs supply. "There is a shortage which will take years to address, so what happens is that corporates put a premium on attracting those people," she said. "If you are a person of colour with experience and qualifications there are definitely plenty of opportunities ... corporates are prepared to pay top dollar," Maruping added. But as much as corporate South Africa is transforming, there's still a long way to go. "The biggest industries in the country are still predominately white, for example if you're white and your father is a director in one of the big banks, he will know people at the same level and can say 'look my son is looking for a job'. So although there are still quite a few white graduates battling to find jobs, just in terms of population proportions, there are a hell of a lot more black graduates [seeking employment]," she explained. Maruping also noted how separated the 'two economies' are, as without skills, qualifications and experience, the chances are that you will join the ranks of the unemployed - estimated to be up to 40 percent of people of working-age. Labour unions and research organisations have pointed to statistics that every worker in South Africa supports between five and 10 other people, mainly family members, due to the countries high jobless levels. Maruping agreed. "A lot of people of colour who are now at that [executive salary] range are supporting more than themselves, they have a string of siblings and family to support as sometimes they are the only ones in their families who have reached that level [of success]". For the many who have already benefited from South Africa's democratic and economic transformation, the local government elections are about untidy public parks and stricter enforcement of municipal by-laws; unlike the people in Phumalela, who regard the local council elections as critical to their hopes for a better life.