A broken promise of a better life for all

A better life for all?

That is the question South Africans will be pondering as the country reflects on 30 years since the dawn of democracy.

Saturday marks exactly 30 years since South Africans of all races cast their vote to usher-in what was then hoped to be a better future than life during apartheid. However, poverty, lack of affordable housing, access to education and healthcare, unemployment, crime, an electricity crisis and the lack of basic service delivery continue to be realities confronting the majority of citizens.

In Cape Town, the scenic views of luxury are juxtaposed by mushrooming informal settlements with service delivery protests a regular phenomenon.

Writing in his personal capacity, deputy vice-chancellor for Social Impact, Transformation and Personnel at Stellenbosch University, Professor Koopman, said: “Unfortunately, in other regards we did not make adequate progress.

For example, provisions for necessities like healthcare, housing, education and welfare services have not improved sufficiently. Millions struggle socio-economically.

“Poverty, unemployment and inequality levels are extremely high and are, in fact, getting worse. Maintenance of basic infrastructure like water supply, electricity supply, roads, trains, harbours, parks and so on has deteriorated. Various stumbling blocks need to be overcome to improve our collective report as a nation. We need to ask for whom democracy is good news. If only materially well-off people enjoy the necessities and goods of the land, the seed is sown for scepticism about democracy, and even violent resistance to it. “We might end up tasting the bitter fruits of this cynicism and revolt. In fact, much of the crime and violence that we experience can be attributed to socio-economic exclusion and marginalisation. We need to ensure that political freedom is accompanied by socio-economic freedom, especially for the most vulnerable.”

Reflecting on the 30 years of democracy, GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron said no one can deny that South Africa was a fundamentally different country to that of pre-1994.

“A lot has changed. Houses have been built – but a free house is not necessarily an affordable house when it’s built poorly and far away from economic opportunities. Electricity connections have been provided. But the costs of electricity units are unaffordable. So while there has been some progress, the lived reality of the majority of South Africans remains one of daily suffering,” Herron said.

People needed to be lifted out of poverty through decent jobs, Herron said.

Nonetheless, he said, there was a reason for celebration on Freedom Day.

“Despite the terrible hardships and the legitimate disappointment in the democratic state’s overall performance in improving people’s lives, Freedom Day is still worth celebrating. The fact that we are going into another free and fair election, where every adult has the right to vote, is worthy of celebrating.”

ANC spokesperson Khalid Sayed, said 30 years into the country’s democracy, the Western Cape has remained and become notoriously known as the last bastion of apartheid.

“The human rights and dignity that are fundamental to freedom remain unfulfilled for 83% of the DA-led province’s black population. Over the past 15 years, the situation has worsened to the point that this province is basically a ‘tale of two cities’. The visual starkness of the two cities is so glaring that no citizen, across all demographic profiles, can deny that it exists.”

While the DA did not respond to requests for comment, earlier this week Premier Alan Winde penned an article, published in the Cape Times, highlighting the achievements of his party.

“Since 2009, when the DA was elected to govern the Western Cape for the first time, the Western Cape government has emerged as the best-performing provincial government in the country. The Western Cape has the lowest unemployment rate in South Africa – more than 10 percentage points lower than the national unemployment rate of 32.1%. In the last five years, four out of every five jobs in South Africa were created in the Western Cape.

The Western Cape has a functional and successful public health sector epitomised by its leading hospitals such as Tygerberg, George, Groote Schuur, the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, and the Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and Mowbray maternity hospitals.”

Mpho Raboeane, acting director of urban land justice group Ndifuna Ukwazi, said there was lack of political will to address the housing crisis.

“After 30 years of mostly failed land reform and redistribution implementation, the open space that is in District Six should be a stark shameful catalyst, but even that has been washed out of focus. Another testament to a lack of political will is the Tafelberg site which remains undeveloped albeit a potential innovative site for inclusive mixed development in obstinately exclusive areas like the Atlantic seaboard.

“Instead of taking up these opportunities to practise what they preach, politicians opt to spend millions of public funds fighting spatial transformation.

The poor and working-class families are forced to occupy land while politicians call for changes to legislation to criminalise occupations,” said Raboeane.

Cape Times