Some of my earliest memories of SA's turbulent political life are through two events that occurred in the early '90s. The first was when Nelson Mandela came to Sebokeng in the Vaal after the Sebokeng massacre in 1991 in which 39 people were shot dead at a night vigil. He was received at the home of Lucky Kamolane, the then chairperson of the ANC Sebokeng branch. His house was just around the corner from my house.
We heard the commotion and a five-year-old me and my friends went running to investigate. We were met by a crowd that had already gathered outside Kamolane's house. Children were allowed to push through the crowd to go and shake Mandela's hand who was standing by the doorsteps.
The second was during the night of the Boipatong massacre in 1992. Boipatong is about 8km from Sebokeng and on that deadly night, rumours were that the hostel dwellers who had committed the murders, andwere believed to be IFP members, were on their way to Sebokeng and were killing every boy child. I was dressed up as a girl, puffed with make-up and loaded into a taxi and driven to go and find shelter at the Sebokeng Hospital.
Then you have the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, 20km south of Sebokeng. You see, the Vaal sits head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to political accolades as far as the Struggle is concerned, and so one would assume that its townships would be the most developed in the country given its ties with the fight for freedom. But, alas, you still find gravel roads in the Vaal, something you rarely see in Soweto.
On Monday, Sowetan ran a three-page report on the service delivery crisis in the Vaal areas under the Emfuleni municipality. The report lays bare the crumbled infrastructure due to lack of maintenance and development, lack of service delivery, sewage drowning the townships, uncollected refuse and potholes that outnumber Bandile Masuku's 1m Covid-19 graves.
Rand Water is closing its pipes and the water pressure is very low; some communities have not had any water since August last year. There are communities that have not had electricity for two years due to a broken sub-station that Eskom won't fix because of the debt owed by the municipality to Eskom.
Granted, the bulk of the community is not paying for rates and services, but even those who are paying are not receiving the services they pay for. It is difficult for people to continue paying when they see wasteful expenditure, corruption, infrastructure falling apart while the tenderpreneurs connected to the politicians running the municipality are getting richer.
It pains me to see the Vaal, a place I call home, in such a dire state. I have lived most of my life in Sebokeng township, in the middle-class section of Zone 14. I grew up in a community that always had water, the best water in all of SA I dare say.
Load-shedding is a word I have recently learnt; when I was growing up we always had reliable, affordable electricity. But over the years I have seen the neglect that has resulted in the high mast lights, the street lights we call apollos, which used to shine a bright orange light into my room at night, fall into disuse. The street light that calmed me into sleep at night has not worked for at least 10 years.
The good tarred roads I played on when I was a child have deteriorated into gravel, thanks to potholes that appeared everywhere, and never fixed for years. I always tell friends that driving in the Vaal is an extreme sport.
The municipality's neglect has resulted in the Masiza Stadium I dreamed of scoring lots of goals in being turned into a den of car-spinning hordes. This was the stadium that hosted the professional league between local heroes Vaal Professionals against visiting clubs such as Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and AmaZulu. Weekends were a buzz and visitors boosted the local economy around the stadium.
Local schools held athletics meetings on the well-maintained synthetic rubber track of Masiza. There is now not a single sign of athletics taking place in that stadium ever again.
The only development I have witnessed in the past 10 years was the construction of tarred roads near Iphahlolleng Primary School. Needless to say, the construction took way too long, probably the last act of corruption through tender deals by the last administration. We know that when some roads get fixed it is time for a Human Rights Day celebration in Sharpeville.
I will borrow from my colleague Bongani Magasela's words: "The difference between uClever [a sly crook] and a tsotsi [street criminal] is that uClever will mug you and leave you alive so that they can mug you again tomorrow. But a tsotsi will mug and kill you." The Emfuleni local municipality has been run by a bunch of tsotsis who have killed communities.
Cry my beloved Vaal.
• Mbele is a photographer
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.