Malamulele and the struggle for self-reliance By: Ntsako Khosa The struggle of people of Malamulele is reaching a point of no return. Only denilists will attempt to undo the ultimate eventually of freedom. The struggle without a leader is doomed to fail. Nature dictates its hatred of vacuum. If masses are not united, are doomed to fail. Hence there is a need for broad engagement on issues of common interest. Both pro and anti – protest sentiments seek to realise one objective, which is “self-reliance”. We need to start from the beginning in order to have a proper diagnosis of what happened in Malamulele. This diagnosis will help us to move forward. It is common knowledge that the people of Malamulele have elected a Task Team (MTT) to represent the community on matters relating to demarcation of new municipality. The MTT is not above criticism, it is not representing itself and it must be transparent and consultative in its mode of operation. It is common knowledge that the MTT lost confidence of the people by betraying the confidence of the masses, when it unilaterally took a foreign decision to preach “a need for vote” on the last general election, contrary to the resolution taken by the masses to boycott elections. The MTT behaved in a manner in which it undermine the wisdom of the constituency and it defined itself as a custodian of the thinking capacity of the residence of Malamulele. This is a total nonsense and they must be told. However the MTT remain the ONLY recognized body that has legitimacy over the voice of the community. We need to recognize that YES they betrayed us, they must apologies and we must move ON. We can’t be permanently angry over tactical glitches that happened in the last general election. However the MTT must not take it for granted that they can do as they please, because people are forgiving in nature (Not fools) and they want this struggle to be led by recognized leaders. In any given struggle there are bound to be causalities. Some of the causalities that we are bound to experiment are the ultimate sacrifices, which is the loss of life. In his message of solidarity to the 5th SASO General Students’ Council, as President of the SASM, Cde. Onkgopotse Tiro wrote ” From this meeting some of you will be called a number of names, the most prominent of which will be communist; some of you will be forced to sleep with hungry stomachs; some will be faced with external separation with their parents and friends; some will languish in prison. This is not new. Our forerunners have suffered all this. No struggle can come to an end without casualties. It is only through determination, absolute commitment and positive self-assertion that we shall overcome”. It is not something new that the idea of which its time has arrived, no amount of skepticism shall deter its mighty manifestation. It is common course that there will be few individual, whose role is to discourage the battalions of our struggle. As Mandela put it clear that, everything look so difficult until someone do it or until is done. Is now or never. We need to rally behind the MTT, encourage broad forum and discourage partisan rhetoric in the struggle. We must not be misled, there shall be causalities. We have noted with great interest some criticism leveled against the leadership (MTT), accusing it of having missed the target and focusing the strike towards irrelevant bodies, instead of targeting the Demarcation Board. To a certain extent the criticisms bear common sense. However it overlooks the real centrality of power dynamics, which is vested in the political office, not in a beaurocratic office. The Demarcation Board is the state organ, it implement the programs of the state. The board is not a court of law or tribunal council, is the agent of state entrusted by its principals to ensure that the agenda of the ruling party find expression in the society. The board does not operate in island, it operate in an environment which is controlled by political powers. Hence the strike must be directed at the politicians, who are the final arbitrators on the will of the masses. To think that the Board operate in an independent terrain, is more like thinking that the Parliament can wake up one day and say MP’s will decide what to do on their own accord. This is politics, let’s not lose focus and start venting our anger towards harmless people sitting at the board. The emergence of the Malamulele Community Association must be embrace by all, as a matter of fact there was no need to have MTT if we had a residence association. The MCA as affectionately known present to the community a sense of belonging and platform that is community driven. The only challenge that will make most residence to be unease with its posture is the desire to contest state power. The community association must be like a church. It must be like a royal or tribal house which is apolitical. Hence I said if we had a residence association, we would not be having an MTT. However the constitution of the republic guarantees every citizen a right to “form a political party, recruit to a political party and even contest state elections”. We must at all-time be ready to dye in defense of these constitutional rights. We hope further engagements will be undertaken, to ensure that as a society we do not fight amongst ourselves, but fight side by side. Now if the residence association take over governance, say hypothetical speaking they get a mayoral ship position. The first task that they have to deal with is to study the system. They will have to understand as to what is causing none service delivery in Malamulele within Thulamela. If the challenge is structural, they will need two terms to address structural deficiencies. If the problem is personnel, they will have to spend lots of money to buy out people in those positions who are not delivering. Either way, during the transition period, we have a community that has run out of patience. They need silver bullet solutions to their needs. They will not understand why you are not delivering while you are in charge. Only few will understand that there is period of transition when you take power and it will need time to settle in. Time is luxury to many, they waited for 2 decades to see light after the tunnel, even today they are hoping that one day their messiah will appear. We understand the type of regime we dealing with. In SA we have a culture where by before people lose their lives, the state or authority will not deliver. We have proven over centuries that we are not good in dialogue; we only opt for dialogue after we have been forced by circumstances. In Northern Cape the state failed to construct a simple road for the community, until a total shut down for 9 months, is then they will come and make promises that even today are reneging on them. People had to be killed at Marikana for them (Workers) to be given R12 500. A child in Limpopo had to dye in the toilet for the state to realise that the infrastructure conditions are not good for human living. Open toilets in Western Cape and Free State are just another taste of poor governance. The less said about text book delivery saga and Nkandla gate, the better we save our BP’s. Now we must understand that we are dealing with a system that is not willing to give up into benefits that come with state power. The re-demarcation of Thulamela will come with lots of financial sacrifices by the ruling elites, which on its own tell us that this shall be a war. In every war there are bound to be causalities. We must soldier on. If there is a need for reconfiguration of MTT, so be it. If there is a need for multi stakeholder forum so be it. One thing that we must shy away is to take political side in this struggle, because we are doomed to fail. We must encourage people to fight for the community, not for their political masters. This is not a test of character of leadership for some individuals waiting for deployment; these are bread and butter issues. Therefore we need to be very clear of the bigger picture. I move to support the total shut down, with Education being made part of essential services such as Hospital and SAPS. Akita continua....
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 10:15:06 +0000
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