According to an extensive poll by Research Surveys, less than one in five black South Africans think Julius Malema has anything to offer, and his friends rate him even worse. Only 12 per cent say Robert Mugabe is doing a good job.
I am one of the few white journalists who spends time in the high-density areas around Jo’burg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban, and the figures don’t surprise me. Debate among the poor is not about land, race, mines or struggle songs.
3 issues of concern
Jobs
Housing
Food
There are only three issues in the townships: jobs, housing and the cost of food and transport. Ask where people were born and most have come from somewhere else. Giyani, Ulundi, Oudshoorn, Uppington: on finishing school, youngsters pack their bags and head for the city because, as everyone knows, that’s where you find work.
Aziko! No job, nowhere to live, no money for transport; so you walk to the suburbs and stroll from house to house hoping someone needs a gardener, painter, bottle-washer.
As a Zimbabwean, this takes me back to Harare 1997. The first riots against Zanu (PF) were not in rural areas and there was no talk of land. The anger was in Tafara, Seke, Budiriro – where young people had come to town with ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels from the very schools Mugabe had set up after 1980.
Zanu did nothing to cater for the needs of a smart workforce, and instead of being grateful for their education, kids were angry that years of schooling had got them nowhere. Ironically, the price of food and housing gave them a standard of living lower than their parents had known in Rhodesia.
Here again in South Africa, what strikes me is how lucid and literate are this new generation. They can do maths and speak two or three languages, they read newspapers and are up on current affairs.
The problems they face grow worse with every long-haul bus that pulls in: anxious faces, high on hope and ready to work. Figures show that a quarter of all South Africans now live in Gauteng, and the rural population is falling by as much as two per cent a year. Each arrival puts more stress on the job market and pressure on housing, lifting rents until every space is occupied and single rooms are sleeping 10.
Taxi queues grow longer, some waiting an hour or more just to get on board.
No Johnny Walker Blue. No Mercs or mansions and little time for the champagne set who claim to serve the poor. If politicians want to understand the pain of their people, this is where they need to be. Not sweeping in for a few minutes with blue lights and bodyguards.
One thing that unites the wretched is a belief that no one cares for their plight. Not the ANC or the DA, not COPE or Julius Malema and I’m not sure South African leaders understand this, just as Zanu (PF) was amazed when they lost the youth vote in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe blamed it on business, farmers, Tony Blair and counter-revolutionaries, anything but his own policies, and his party remains in denial. Their answer to urban pain was Murambatsvina.
In South African townships, you get the same question over and over. “Please, can you give me a job?” Any politician who wants to keep their own job must hear this.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis