Ok enough negative tit for tat for now. Let's be positive today.
So on a personal on the ground level, what changes have I seen since 1994 ?
As for me I do get exposed to poverty everyday. My business is based in the heart of a small rural township and I interact with black and coloured people on a daily basis. And due to the nature of my business it's my duty to know their problems on a very personal level.
These problems are all there : poverty , hiv , violence (but almost always happening in a shebeen after too much booze), rape etc but I can honestly say without a single doubt in my mind that things are 10 times better here now than even 10 years ago.
The people almost all now live in RDP houses. Before they lived in those tin shacks suffering from exposure to the weather , no electricity or running water. Garbage lay everywhere and there was no sewage. All the conditions that lead to poor health. Now with the houses they all have electricity which they get a certain amount for free. The rest they buy at about an average of 10 rand per week which is enough to run their lights , stoves and televisions. Luxuries of course they never had before when the women would have to go out and fetch fire wood to make their pot bread and maize. The environment obviously also benefits and the surrounding area is far more wooded than before.
I won't lie and tell you these RDP houses are fantastically built. Some show signs of cracked walls etc, however for the most part those who have wanted to have maintained their houses often using building skills they learn through the public works program.
They now also have a clinic and a cresh for their kids. They recieve all their medicine for free including anti retrovirals. a doctor visits a few times a week and 2 dedicated nurses attend the rest of the time. Not ideal but that's capatlism for you. Certainly better than what they had before.
The school has been given massive upgrades and all students recieve free textbooks , stationary etc. I know the headmaster and he is a sound and diligent citizen. Together we are working on a feeding scheme for the school and have had excellent support.
The public works programs has given hundreds work including a project to fix all the surrounding roads. They almost all recieve government social grants for various things which many families reply upon but survive comfortably.
Crime wise you do from time to time hear of someone stabbing someone due for this or that reason. Booze is almost always involved. It's not chaotic and it's easy to avoid. My business is an obvious target but if something happened here I have no doubt it would come from outside the community. The police have shown excellent response whenever alarms etc have been triggered and I know many on a personal level and have faith in their ability to police the community effectively. I have experiened petty theft on many occasions. On one occasion my lap top was stolen from my car but the next morning they had caught the guy and returned it. He served 6 months in prison with me having to make a short court appearance.
As far as service delivery is concerned we're no model community. But compared to ten years they now have their garbage collected from trucks , clean drinkable water on tap , electricty etc which of course makes for a far more pleasant environment. The roads in the township are not good and this needs to be sorted as many are now vehicle owners(unimaginable 15 years ago).
As it is a rural area most people living in the village work on farms. and earn a meager wage. However many have managed to elevate themselves through the new opportunities on offer. Most houses now have telivision which has been a major catalyst towards normalising the society. Shows like 7 de Laan/Egoli etc are very popular (this community is chiefly Afrikaans) and offer positive black and coloured rolemodels.
The children in the community are still mostly an unpolished lot. There are a group of teenagers I like to chat to about nerdish things. They're well into their computer games and built up a Frankenstine like computer for themselves with a old chunky graphics card etc. I sometimes used to let them play games on my pc or use my internet until ...as teenagers do....they started surfing "unsavoury" sites and we had to withdraw that little right. Point is though there are some techno savy lot and that's extremely promising. Many children from this one extremely poor and uneducated place also attend university now and many more asspire to. The future benefits are massive.
Other than these obvious improvement I can't really explain but everyone who knows this community agrees it's massively better than it was under white rule when they basically were not even on the grid and had no rights or benefits. I would say if the current progress continues many of these people will move into the middle class in the next ten years. The people have hope and goals now. They exist for more than just surviving. Many now rather than just survive have the luxury to be discerning regarding their diets/fashion etc. Before honestly and without exagerattion they could only afford to eat what was cheapest and had to wear what was found or handed down. Now this is far from the case for 90% of them. Allong with the new found "wealth" has come self pride and self worth. Everyone wants to have the nicest house and the nicest cell phone etc but doesn't want to be known as a scollie or tsotsi in such a small community. The good old seed of capalism is well and truly planted.
So there...one man's personal experience of the vitilisation of a once down trodded mess from right under my nose. Are there many problems ? Yes ! Is there little hope of sorting the problems ? A resounding NO ! I personally look forward the the challenges and playing my small part in this little miracle. One of thousands and thousands of similar miracles country wide.
As I write this I can look out my office window as see all the locals dressed in their Sunday best as they return from church. Those that notice me offer a polite greeting. A greeting I would like to think says that while there way of life is far removed from mine we share a mutual respect. A respect formed through knowing we need each other. Our fates, no matter how different are intertwined here in South Africa. And as the African philosophy of Ubuntu preaches, I can not be me without you.
Please feel free to share your own personal experiences. I especially want to hear from black and coloured people but everyone is welcome.
Peace and Love
Rooster
6 comments:
i worked in kwamushu if thats how u spell it a nd the blacks themself didnt beleive i was living there as they said the crime is terrbile alot of them said they felt fear of crime
we lived in a soccer staduim called princess magogo my dad worked on that staduim when we still lived in sa.
and we did christian teaching in the schools alot of the school were well built but in desperate need of repair the windows were all broken alot of schools didnt have hte lights on
a mess really they told us the government has never fixed them and the reason the schools r damaged is cause of the trouble during aprathied days and they told us they have been wrecked ever since
crime wise i didnt see anything a few kids driving around really fast nothing much but there was a heavy polic presence so i got the feeling thins did get out of control once in a while . kwamashu is were that black guy had his eyes couyt out for his cellphone even the whites were saying becaurefull tis a bad area
i spoke to a few black cops as we also did prsion visits
when i told the black inmates i was born in harare thye all laughed the house prolly cause they think mugabe sorted us whitey out
but i spoke to thje cops asked them if crime was getting better they said they felt yes cause they the cops were around alot more
cheers
But if it going so well with them blacks why are they boozing so much? Should'nt they start boozing less & less as conditions improve for them?
All students get free text books and medical support? But white friends in South Africa tell me they pay grinding school fees and nothing is for free. Who finances the freebees when there are so many unemployed? It must cost in the billions of dollars.
i worked in kwamushu if thats how u spell it a nd the blacks themself didnt beleive i was living there as they said the crime is terrbile alot of them said they felt fear of crime
we lived in a soccer staduim called princess magogo my dad worked on that staduim when we still lived in sa.
and we did christian teaching in the schools alot of the school were well built but in desperate need of repair the windows were all broken alot of schools didnt have hte lights on
a mess really they told us the government has never fixed them and the reason the schools r damaged is cause of the trouble during aprathied days and they told us they have been wrecked ever since
crime wise i didnt see anything a few kids driving around really fast nothing much but there was a heavy polic presence so i got the feeling thins did get out of control once in a while . kwamashu is were that black guy had his eyes couyt out for his cellphone even the whites were saying becaurefull tis a bad area
i spoke to a few black cops as we also did prsion visits
when i told the black inmates i was born in harare thye all laughed the house prolly cause they think mugabe sorted us whitey out
but i spoke to thje cops asked them if crime was getting better they said they felt yes cause they the cops were around alot more
cheers
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Thanks for your story. I think you will find different experiences in differenty communities and municipalities. Some are clearly more corrupt and less sucessful than others. I propose that my community is slightly below par but has still made massive strides. One aspect I forgot to write about is the lifestyle of the whites in my community and their relationship to other people. Maybe I'll do so in a follow up.
But if it going so well with them blacks why are they boozing so much? Should'nt they start boozing less & less as conditions improve for them?
All students get free text books and medical support? But white friends in South Africa tell me they pay grinding school fees and nothing is for free. Who finances the freebees when there are so many unemployed? It must cost in the billions of dollars.
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I don't know...you get "skollies" in every society. Go to the U.K and you will meet some beauts (skollies that is..certainly not women.) Yes the blacks and colourds do drink too much and it does often lead to violence and sexual abuse in their communities. The coloured murder rate is actually far higher than the black murder rate by the way...around 60-80 per 100 000 while the black murder rate is around 40 per 100 000 (whites around 12 per 100 000). So do many South African whites drink too much for that matter and get into fisty cuffs. Culturally though we don't just knife a mofo. Kick his teeth in maybe.
lol...white school friends moaning about the school fees they have to pay ? Want to rephrase that ? ohn their parents moaning ? Where do they go ? Private schools ? Semi private ? I think you will find the better government schools recieve even more freebies than the shittier ones.
Perspective from a black person:
I often read old guard south africans claim 'even the blacks say it was better under apartheid'- rubbish,the people who say that are simply wishing for the good old days when 90% of government resources were lavished on 10% of the population.
Or they are reacting to rightfully frustrated minorities protesting against bad service delivery and probably only interact with blacks that clean their houses and cut their grass.
Even the poorest of the poorest black south african would never ever,ever,EVER genuinely want apartheid back-as they'd still be in the same situation and also be legally deprived of pretty much every human right to boot.(and probably killed by apartheid police for protesting.)
And working class and middle class black south africans would never say the country hasn't got better,my family members- mother,father,aunts,uncles,who lived under apartheid all now have access to a better way of life that would never have been possible under apartheid.
Their children, my cousins were born into a south africa where the options they have,and level of infastructure invested in their communities was unheard of to our grandparents.
They can file complaints to police stations,disagree with and pressure their government,send their children to universities,own property,travel and work professionally in law,teaching, medicine and business and government,and of course enjoy all of the usual modern material luxuries.
All of the above was not available to the average black south african under apartheid and if you believe that,you and I both know you are A.lying or B. on crack.
Frankly those who say the country hasn't got better are mostly bitter racists pining for the good ol' days(for them!not blacks)and talking utter kak.
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
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