Taking Action for basic services in South Africa

ORANGE FARM RESIDENTS CONTINUE PROTEST ACTIONS TO DEMAND BASIC SERVICES

TWO BLOCKADES OF THE GOLDEN HIGHWAY RESULT IN NUMEROUS ARRESTS AND 18 PEOPLE BEING SHOT & INJURED BY POLICE

ORANGE FARM WATER CRISIS COMMITTEE TO CONTINUE ORGANISING TO FORCE GOVERNMENT TO DELIVER BASIC SERVICES AND TO HOLD POLICE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS

LAST WEEK

On Wednesday last week (6 September), thousands of residents from Orange Farm (a township south of Johannesburg) blockaded the Golden Highway, a major arterial road in Gauteng, demanding that the Mayor of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo, avail himself to residents in order to address the lack of service delivery in the township. Over many months, residents, with the help of the Orange Farm Water Crisis Committee (OWCC), have been coming together in house meetings to share their problems around accessing basic services. While Orange Farm was declared a township in 1997, with the promise of improved access to basic services, almost ten years later there are still parts that do not have electricity or access to proper water supplies. In fact, much of Orange Farm still resembles the informal settlement that it began as. Most widespread is the lack of proper sanitation, with pit latrines a striking feature of the area. With the introduction of the logic of 'cost recovery' in the delivery of basic services as the state has handed over control of this area to the private sector, access to basic services has been made even more difficult for the poor as they have been expected to begin paying for basic services, and other services (such as health care and education).

Over the last year, the OWCC has called a number of public meetings to which the 4 local Ward Councillors have been invited. These Councillors did not appear at any of these meetings, claiming that they had more pressing work commitments at the time. The OWCC believes that it is because these meetings were not called by the ANC that the Councillors have ignored them. In house meetings over the last few weeks, residents' anger has been boiling over, and the decision to blockade the highway was taken. The blockade started at 2am last Wednesday with a group of about 20 taking the road with just their bodies and placards. By 4am, the group had swelled to over 200, and the traffic and public order police had appeared in their numbers. It was still dark when the police, without warning, opened fire on the crowd with rubber bullets, hitting a woman on her leg and a man in his stomach. While many people hid for fear of arrest, the gun shots woke up more residents who then joined the blockade. This time, they came with any material they could find in order to construct barricades. As the numbers grew to the thousands, the blockade was made more effective as protestors could organise in smaller groups to take different sections of the highway at the same time, in this manner frustrating the work of the police and, at times, even cordoning in the police. At approximately 1pm, police again opened fire with rubber bullets and birdshot, injuring 8 more people, this time hitting a woman in the back of her head. 4 people were arrested and almost immediately released.

When residents still refused to disperse, one of the local Councillors, Meisie Msimango, was escourted into the crowd in a heavily guarded Casspir. When she told protestors that she was there "to listen" to their "grievances", residents refused to speak to her, charging that their grievances were already known and that they wanted the Mayor himself to account to them about the failure of government to deliver on its promises for Orange Farm. They did not have a memorandum because they did not feel that they needed to inform or ask anything of the Mayor. Rather, they were there to demand that he answer to why the promises of 'development' have not been met. They also asked Councillor Msimango why she needed to visit them in a Casspir in order to discuss the lack of service delivery when she was quite a different kind of person when she was canvassing for votes. It was clear that residents had had enough of waiting for government to deliver on its promises. In the words of Bricks Mokolo, Chairperson of the OWCC, "We have been patient for a very long time. And for the Councillors to continue to say that we must wait and give them a chance is not acceptable. Every five years a new Councillor is elected and makes the same promises and asks us to give them a chance as they are 'still learning'. But for over 15 years now the people of Orange Farm have been waiting. Under apartheid, we refused to pay for substandard development and poor quality of services. With our new government, we were never consulted about what kind of development we want. Now we are expected to live with and pay for even poorer quality of services than under apartheid because our government says that it has no budget. Having no budget is just an excuse to open up the delivery of basic services to the private companies to make profit. How can we be hosting an international World Cup when we have no budget? We fought for a better quality of life under apartheid, and we are fighting for it now. We are not afraid to die in this struggle as we are already dying at the hands of our government."

Eventually a 6 person delegation was elected from the crowd to go and meet with the local Councillors. While the meeting took place in Orange Farm, the blockade continued, with protestors maintaining that they would not budge until there was some guarantee that their living conditions would be addressed. By 3.30pm the meeting had concluded with the understanding that Amos Masondo would not be available, but that the municipality would pull together a meeting with representatives of each of the major service providers for the following day. When delegates reported this outcome, protestors were not happy, with some wanting to move to blockade a nearby national road, the N1. However, the OWCC eventually dispersed protestors with the understanding that there would be a mass meeting the following day. Residents had been able to hold the highway for over 12 hours, their demands had been heard, and they could not risk greater injury or be arrested. Instead, they would now allow the municipality to respond and proceed with further action as determined through collective discussion thereafter.

Thursday's meeting with the Councillors basically involved all the major service providers (private companies) presenting their overall plans for service delivery to the delegation. However, ESKOM was not represented as its spokesperson was unable to avail herself due to her study commitments at university! While the delegation was angry with the proceedings of the meeting, and the mass meeting that followed continued to express the anger of residents, it was agreed to wait until Monday when ESKOM would make its presentation at a meeting. While it was clear that there was no agreement reached between the municipality and the OWCC on Thursday, Councillors have already been representing the meeting to the media as a success with an agreement having been reached to suspend all protests. When the OWCC came out strongly to counter this in the mainstream media, an attempt was made to portray any continued protest action as the 'unruly behaviour' of a few 'undiscipined instigators'. In these charges, Bricks is already being singled out.

YESTERDAY

Residents of Orange Farm are have continued their protest actions, spurred on by the strength and unity shown in last week's blockade as well as by the heavy-handedness of the police. Yesterday morning, without an organisational banner or identified leadership, but with the same demand of 'service delivery now', residents of a section of Orange Farm took to the Golden Highway again. This time 14 people were arrested. The Orange Farm Water Crisis Committee (OWCC) is currently trying to trace these residents and to arrange legal representation for them. In house visits since last week's action, members of the OWCC have been discovering that more people were injured at the hands of the police and their rubber bullets. The number now stands at 18. Some of those injured were not even part of the blockade, but were hurt when police entered Orange Farm, blindly shooting at residents in their homes. An 18 year old boy was shot in the stomach while gardening. An older woman showed us the rubber bullet that flew past her head as she hung up her washing. Many residents have not gone to hospital with their injuries for fear of arrest. Through house visits, the OWCC is trying to address these fears and to organise residents to challenge these actions by the police. Residents are unified in their anger at the way in which the police responded to their peaceful demonstration. They all speak with contempt of the behaviour of the police, highlighting the fact that the police opened fire without any warning on a group of protesters that were doing nothing to intimidate them. While the police claim that they were responding to being stoned by the crowd, residents strongly deny this. They point to the fact that a young pregnant woman was shot and that many were shot in the back as examples to prove this.

In spite of this anger at the police, the delegation elected at last week's protests attended the meeting scheduled for 2pm yesterday at which ESKOM would present its plans for Orange Farm. However, the meeting would not proceed as a result of the presence of members of the Ward Committees, also members of the ANC. At the meeting convened between the Councillors and the community delegation last week, Ward Committee members had been allowed to participate even though the community had elected a separate delegation to negotiate on its behalf. Midway through last week's meeting, Ward Committee representatives and a Councillor left the meeting while it was in session in order to address the media. They told the media that a resolution to the problem had been reached between the community and the Councillors, and that the protests had been called off. The community delegation therefore felt that it would not be appropriate for the Ward Committee members to continue participating in the meeting as they did not represent the true interests of residents. When the Ward Committee representatives refused to leave, members of the recently elected community delegation refused to participate any further in the meeting and went out to address a mass meeting. At this meeting, residents wanted to immediately take to the highway again. However, after much discussion and debate, it was agreed that it would be more strategic at this point to try to force a proper meeting to convene by taking occupation of the municipal offices.

The OWCC is busy with house meetings and the families of those injured are also being visited. And strategies and tactics are being debated and discussed as everyone is quite certain that the plans of private companies can not be relied on to deliver the kind of quality services that residents have been promised since 1994. The blockade is therefore just the beginning of a wider campaign.

NO FREEDOM WITHOUT BASIC SERVICES!

For further information and to provide support, contact:

Bricks Mokolo (Organiser, OWCC) – 0721758948 or Prishani Naidoo at prishanin@gmail.com [1]