TAKING POWER SERIOUSLY
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ISSUE No. 63 APRIL 2019 WILL YOU BE VOTING IN THE DARK?
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The struggle is to socialise Eskom | Preventing civil war and US intervention in Venezuela FEMINISM FOR THE 99 PERCENT CALLS ON ALL RADICAL MOVEMENTS TO JOIN TOGETHER IN A COMMON ANTICAPITALIST INSURGENCY
Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser
Unaffordable housing, poverty wages, healthcare, climate change, border policing; not the issues you ordinarily hear feminists talking about. But don’t these issues impact the vast majority of women globally? Taking as its inspiration the new wave of feminist militancy that has erupted globally, this Manifesto makes a simple but powerful case: Feminism shouldn’t start—or stop—with seeing women represented at the top of society. It must start with those at the bottom, and fight for the world they deserve. And that means targeting capitalism. Feminism must be anti-capitalist, eco- socialist and anti-racist. This is a manifesto for the 99%.
ISBN: 9781788734424 Extent: 96 pages Format: Paperback SA Release date: May 2019 RRP: R210
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02 | Eskom, climate change and the just transition Editorial Labour 02 |Eskom, climate change and 24 | Rebuilding the workers’ movement the just transition for counter-power, justice and self- management: a contribution to the debate News Briefs and Social Media What do we mean by? 04 | News Briefs 26 | What is fascism and how 05 | Social Media do we ght it today?
Feature: Elections 08 Elections promise rural people; International the elected forget them. 06 | Election time again 28 |Gilets Jaunes movement: the lasting French revolt 08 |Elections promise rural people; the elected forget them 30 |Preventing civil war and US intervention in Venezuela 10 |Searching for just one party for a just transition 12 |Québec Solidaire: New politics a movement with a parliamentary wing? 34 |Internationalism: a culture 14 |To vote or not to vote: that is the question and a commitment 16 |Nigeria’s nightmare
Eskom and the economy 24 Rebuilding the workers’ movement 18 |Budget balancing close to panic 20 |The struggle is to socialise Eskom 22 |Energy democracy and public ownership
30 Preventing civil war and US intervention in Venezuela
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Email your comments to [email protected] or visit www.amandla.org.za for additional articles, news and views. Tweet us @AmandlaMedia // Facebook amandla! media // Subscribe to Amandla! website at www.amandla.org.za // To post material on the website, contact [email protected] Tropical Cyclone Idai. Thousands of people have been killed and tens of thousands are still on roofs and in trees, without food or water, desperately hoping that help will arrive in time. The city of Beira in Mozambique, where more than half a million lived, is destroyed. Eskom, climate change and the just transition
hoping that help will arrive in time. e behind only death and destruction. e Eskom, is the city of Beira in Mozambique, where more schools, our office, the hospitals that thousand dollar than half a million lived, is destroyed. have remained standing have become question? is Nelson Moda was in Beira when the refuge of hundreds of families should actually read Tropical Cyclone Idai hit. He recounts who have lost everything. e roof the billion rand what happened: of the hospital in Beira has fallen and Wquestion - that will be Eskom’s debt in newborns from the neonatal ward just three years, at current projections. “It was my son’s birthday on March have died. Another people have Load shedding, Eskom’s extreme financial and we were all at home. In the died in the facility…We have only eaten crisis, total mismanagement, corruption, morning this strong storm started oranges and avocados for days and we state capture and cronyism, as well as its and it was moving the city, the trees, ration drinking water.” addiction to coal, have led many to throw and the houses. It was like a war. It up their hands and give up on Eskom. was horrific. e children were crying e coal-dependent electricity sector and we were hiding in the bathroom. I isolated “natural disaster”. Look at the is responsible for almost of total could see people dying and the house second half of : greenhouse gas emissions. South Africa where I live has been destroyed. ere • In August, in the Southern Indian has become, per capita, one of the most are children who now have no father, State of Kerala, people died carbon intensive polluters in the world. no mother, and no home. I saw the city and one million were displaced in where I grew up being destroyed with devastating floods. Climate change and my naked eyes. In Beira, there are no • In October, when Hurricane Michael Cyclone Idai basic services and people don’t know made landfall on the North Florida what they’re going to eat or where coast, it was the third strongest economy, ’s emission profile is at a they’re going to sleep. I haven’t been hurricane in history, edging out similar level to Germany or Britain. So, able to sleep since that night.” Hurricane Katrina which devastated when considering what to do with Eskom, New Orleans in . we cannot ignore the problem of climate , • In November, the ironically named change. Only the extremely ignorant and Fabrizio Graglia describes the town of “Paradise”, home to , callous could suggest this is not a key impact of Idai: people, disappeared in the deadliest fire issue when our neighbours are suffering in California’s history. people died. the worst climate change disaster ever to “Idai massacred Sofala that ursday • In South Africa, some parts of the be inflicted on the Southern Hemisphere. night. Since that day we are without country are still suffering one of ousands of people have been killed and electric power, communication, fuel, the longest and severest droughts tens of thousands are still on roofs and in food, drinking water, road connections, experienced. e taps have even run dry trees, without food or water, desperately ATMs and banks. is cyclone has left in several Eastern Cape towns.
Amandla! Issue No.63 2 APRIL 2019 How much more devastation must there is is unfortunate. It robs the labour classes and the poor who are at climate be? How many more people must die? movement of a powerful tool in building change’s coal-face. ey live under the an anti-capitalist consciousness. Capital most vulnerable conditions and are South Africa and the state are constrained by their least capable of adapting to its impact. - need to defend profit, so they will not People living in informal settlements climate change. While recognising the undertake the massive investments and in low lying areas with poor housing carbon intensity of our economy, it is necessary. Without raising the issue of are at extreme risk from floods and intent on rebuilding the Minerals Energy climate change, the few occasions when severe storms. And during periods Complex. It is searching for foreign they talk of the need for socially owned of drought, access to water becomes investment in mining and more coal-fired renewable energy and for a just transition even more precarious. Dependence on electricity plants. For the government, sound hollow. ey look like a fig leaf complimentary forms of livelihoods this equals economic growth and rising for the defence of coal and coal-based (food gardens, subsistence farming etc.) , which in turn means greater foreign industrialisation. collapse. investor and business confidence, more e labour movement is correct Yet, we remain largely in denial. state revenue, declining debt levels, less to critique and oppose the privatised Media reports fail to link these disasters pressure from the credit rating agencies independent power producer renewable with climate change. But they are the and more scope for empowerment energy programme. But it must also outcome of global warming, of pumping deals. According to the government’s support unequivocally a just transition millions of tons of greenhouse gases commitment to combating climate based on socially owned renewable into the atmosphere. And as the earth change, it sees in the short term an energy. It is not enough to talk in abstract warms, the intensity and frequency of increase in the carbon intensity of the terms of an energy mix. these weather events will get Such a just transition worse. According to the would entail the planned Intergovernmental Panel on phase out of coal-fired power Climate Change () recent stations and the protection report, it is critical to do of the affected workers and everything in our collective communities. We currently power to limit global warming have a good example of how to just . degrees centigrade, not to do it. e failure to plan to avoid unprecedented for the decline of gold mining disasters of nature. e report has created ghost towns. It is finds that limiting global mineworkers who have been warming to .°C would require made to bear the cost through “rapid and far-reaching” their unemployment. transitions in land, energy, Clear demands must be industry, buildings, transport, refined around reskilling, and cities. Global net human- no job losses, guarantees of caused emissions of carbon state-supported income for dioxide () would need to displaced workers, economic fall by about percent from support for communities levels by , reaching The coal-dependent electricity sector is responsible for almost 60% of total affected by mine and power “net zero” around . greenhouse gas emissions. South Africa has become, per capita, one of the most station closures etc. Equally, To do this will entail carbon intensive polluters in the world. the unions must develop a massive government strategic approach to demands investment and the planned reallocation economy. Emissions are only scheduled to around ownership and control of the of resources locally, nationally, and start reducing after . generation of renewable energy. globally. Only the special circumstances With social ownership, renewables of the First and Second World Wars have Labour movement paralysed could be developed as a public good. seen such a huge and rapid outpouring In contrast to the approach, they of public investment and planning. It is the media that are effectively in denial of could be deployed in a way that does not generally inconsistent with capitalism. climate change. e labour movement, undermine the entire public service model It is certainly in direct contradiction which should be at the forefront of of electricity provision. A cooperative with neoliberalism, especially if public climate change, seems paralysed. It relationship between different forms of investment is financed, as seems is proving unable to provide the lead energy is essential. It will allow South necessary, by taxing the profits of fossil in the militant struggle that must be Africa to plan its transition, based on fuel capital and the big banks. waged against capitalism if we are to halt social and ecological need. Only a socially It will also mean a severe loss of value global warming. owned system can ensure a just energy of the billions of dollars of investment Take the Eskom crisis. e labour transition. in oil, gas, coal and other minerals. movement has correctly opposed the Capitalists have shown no sign of willingly unbundling of Eskom. ey point out agreeing to forfeit trillions of dollars that this is probably the first step towards Disclaimer of future earnings by leaving the vast privatisation, massive job losses and majority of proven fossil fuel reserves increased electricity tariffs. However, The views expressed in these articles do not (coal, oil and gas) in the ground. e key they are silent on the urgent need to necessarily re ect those of the Alternative message has become to look after your fight climate change and to take steps to Information & Development Centre, or the own country and exploit your fossil fuel decarbonise the electricity sector and Amandla! Editorial Collective. resources more intensely than ever before. transition to a low carbon economy.
Amandla! Issue No.63 3 APRIL 2019 news briefs & social
Some 1,600 people attended a mass meeting yesterday in Sigidi village, Xolobeni area, on the Wild Coast, to media celebrate Human Rights Day. They came to protest against violence directed against rural communities who defend their land and to support the November Xolobeni “Right to Say NO” Judgment.
organisations and community him to get his thoughts on the upcoming leaders with delegations from seven elections. news briefs provinces signed a declaration of Khongelani Hlungwani: Hi comrade, support for and the right of directly what are the workplaces issues you guys affected land rights holders and the have as we are approaching election? Amadiba Crisis coastal Umgungundlovu community to Siyabonga Mtshali: ere are plenty Committee: Human Rights “Free Prior and informed Consent”. e of problems. e failed us because Day in Sigidi, Mbizana Judgement says that cannot grant a our whole department is not permanent. license for the “Xolobeni Mining Project” We are under contracts even though we , before the directly affected community have worked for many years. is is a meeting yesterday in Sigidi village, gives consent in a customary law process. clear indication that the ruling party does Xolobeni area, on the Wild Coast, to Consequently, the Sigidi Declaration not keep their promises that they made celebrate Human Rights Day. ey came condemns Minister Mantashe’s “survey” back in . to protest against violence directed as a scam. has reliable information : Do you think the upcoming against rural communities who defend that Mr Mantashe wants to “survey” elections can bring change to the their land and to support the November Mbizana wards up to -km away from problems you are facing? Xolobeni “Right to Say ” Judgment, the coast. As , we regard him as being : I do not think so, because right that Minister Mantashe and have in contempt of court. Indeed, facing the now is just time for promises and making appealed. e meeting was held at the community on January in Xolobeni, noise. I realise all political parties are full premises of Sigidi Primary School. he “lost it” and called the judgement of lies and empty promises. e village built the school itself “bullshit”. He lies about the content of the : Are there any parties doing things in the s without support from the Xolobeni judgement every time he speaks differently? government. Today, - youth from of it in the media. : I think for now is doing much Mdatya and Sigidi villages met up again to e event was a demonstration of better. Since got into parliament clean the premises, clean floors and scrub strength and resolve. To us as , it there are some changes. Look at the issue pots, putting all back to normal. As , marked the start of a Right to Say No of land. I don’t think the have the we salute the youth! information movement. interests of us black people as they keep Headwoman Duduzile Baleni presided using vulgar language toward us. And my over the large event. In between speeches, Workers are not going to vote organisation, which is , does not fulfil a group of sangomas held a ceremony, their promises. at is my concern. asking the ancestors for help in defending “ ” : Where are you taking your vote to our ancestral land and to get justice for newspaper for this interview with this time? our late chair, Bazooka Radebe, and his Siyabonga Mtshali, a disillusioned, card- : Eish! I really don’t know. We heard family. He was killed by hitmen three carrying member and a worker at the president in his address, and years ago today, on March . Ekurhuleni’s Disaster and Emergency there are some changes since the time of holds that the investigation has Management Services. organiser, Zuma. e was peaceful. But still, I been blocked. Khongelani Hlungwani, interviewed don’t think I’m going to vote due to how
Amandla! Issue No.63 4 APRIL 2019 anger of young Black students expressed, demonstrates the need for such fora, the more so in the face of the failure of political parties at this time. ank you. We need more such political, non-aligned education! Xolobeni and the irony of history , , : We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sistas in Xolobeni. Our attempt to oppose the Armed Forces Night shoot showed us in our middle class neighbourhood that the state does not listen to the citizen and will impose with violence using our taxpayers money to do so. Rmillion… Nothing has changed except the colour of the boot on the Right now is just time for promises and making noise. I realise all political parties are full of lies and empty working man’s neck. promises… And my organisation, which is ANC, does not ful l their promises. That is my concern. The era of unbridled bad they treat the workers especially in regardless. A judge has found that Brazil’s faith in the virtues of municipalities. I know most workers are new environment minister altered the markets is over not going to vote. plans for an environmentally protected : Clarify me here. Why will workers area in order to favour businesses. e : not vote for an opposition party? judge found that Salles violated legal ’ . : Because people have love for . and regulatory norms, impeded the is on a path for more elite capture So they feel like it is much better just not participation of other sectors of the style on land. We on the path to become a to vote. environmental system and “attended MacDonald republic. “ the economic interests of a restricted : What the bosses earn group in detriment to the defence of the ’ environment”. All of this was found before persistence when it comes to repeatedly he was actually appointed. But none if it making the wrong choices. they might be suffering as a result of the impressed President Bolsonaro enough to stagnant economy, this should put your stop the appointment. Land reform: expropriation mind at rest: without compensation is Investec: Steven Koseff earned Gig economy exploitation not the central issue pounds. e basic salary came to .m or R.m. Total remuneration was , : .m or Rm. delivery driver made less in than FirstRand: Burger’s guaranteed in . ey are earning about a article. But one thing it doesn’t mention is package was R.m. His guaranteed and month on average (down from ,). our long “history” (?) of one lot of people variable pay was R.m Add incentives ose are the findings of a study by the chasing another lot away and grabbing and he got a cool R.m. organ Chase Institute. Why have their land. Many would say that’s not Woolworths: the company has not those drivers suffered such a steep income just “history” – it’s happening, right been doing too well since it bought the decline? Fewer working hours, a flattening now, even on an individual scale, with Australian chain, David Jones. But the of demand, a decline in trip prices and “gentrification” and the like. Ian Moir still pulled in a total of an overall decrease in the amount these It seems to me we need something that R.m. So much for payment by results. platforms are paying. Proof that what confirms each person’s right to live where Vodacom: Shameel Joosub’s these platforms do is to woo workers with they do. ere have been advances in that remuneration came to R.m. offers of more money, and then, once they regard, but not enough. ey need to be Sasol: one is not enough for have joined, take the money away again. “bulldozer-proofed”. Sasol. It has two “joint s”. ere’s Also, while there are “communal” Stephen Cornell, paid in dollars with tenure schemes of various kinds (which a basic salary in rands. He got a total of the article describes), these have certain R.m. And then Bongani Nqwababa’s. social media disadvantages in that people are locked He must be some kind of junior , I into them, and the useful value to each suppose. I wonder why. Anyway he got a person is dependent on the fortunes of the mere R.m. Looks like he was paid only Amandla! Forum: Helena whole. If an area suffers misfortune due to in rands. So a total bill of Rm. Sheehan environmental degradation, or if someone finds better employment in a town, they Dishonesty no can only escape by leaving everything obstacle to office behind, and moving to some other area and discussion at last night. Just with only their portable belongings. wanted you to know of my appreciation ey cannot exchange their place in the the only country in which judges that you arrange for such unique talks and “commune” (whatever it may be worth) find that government ministers have cater for the discussion that followed. e for another place outside. been dishonest and yet they continue diversity of opinion but also the frustrated
Amandla! Issue No.63 5 APRIL 2019 FEATURE PLACEHOLDER TEXT
Election time again By Amandla! correspondent
The legacy of the ANC government of the last 25 years is devastating.
• Levels of violence, especially against offering endless opportunities for super- election – the fourth including women, that are devastatingly high. exploitation of informalised workers and . Increasingly, radio talk shows • A polarised and divided society where corrupt relationships between private Sare populated by anguished would- racism is embedded in privilege, and suppliers and government procurement. be voters in despair at the choice before non-racialism is a fading illusion. Secondly, the focus on extractive them. We can’t promise to solve that • million households without a proper industries – digging rock and shipping it conundrum, just to offer a perspective. house to live in. out – must be fundamentally changed. Any such discussion must start with • Unstable and intermittent supply e President’s “back to the future” dream a review of where South Africa stands of basic services such as electricity of restoring the South African economy now. What is the situation that will face and water. through more energetic, more efficient a new government and what kind of • Inadequate response to the devastations mining, is not only an illusion. It is also strategies are required to address them? of climate change. dangerous. We have seen by now that And it immediately becomes clear that the • Police violence against protestors and it is not mining that creates significant change that is required is fundamental. peaceful demonstrations. numbers of jobs, nor is it processing of the e legacy of the government of the mineral that is extracted. It is downstream last years is devastating: e state is failing. manufacturing. And the manufacturing • Economic stagnation, with an economy share of the South African economy is growing at a rate slower than the Need for fundamental now half what it was in . It is no increase in population. In other words, change coincidence that manufacturing has shrinking for each inhabitant. , declined as unemployment has risen. • Economic policy which continues to is the result of the existing policies, then And thirdly, there cannot be a viable rest on austerity and an outdated and they must change fundamentally if we strategy for the South African economy harmful vision of the Minerals Energy want to achieve a different result. Black without addressing the fundamental issue Complex – shipping raw minerals out of Economic Empowerment has failed. of climate change. If nothing else, Cyclone the country. All it has done is to create a predatory Idai has brought home the threat posed by • Job devastation, with more than elite, based on massive corruption and runaway climate change. million people unemployed (from cronyism. e neoliberal, subcontracted In short, any party which fails to offer million in ) – of people who model of capitalism has failed. It is failing fundamental change, including a strategy need work can’t get a job. even in advanced capitalist countries. In to achieve that change, will not be capable • Crumbling health care and South Africa it has led to expensive and of delivering “a better life for all”. e time education systems. inefficient service provision, as well as for slogans is past.
Amandla! Issue No.63 6 APRIL 2019 ELECTIONSPLACEHOLDER TEXT Many parties, few solutions parties will be standing in the national election one cannot say the voter is spoilt for choice. Very few get to the roots of the crisis facing South Africa. Most of the parties offer variations on the ’s failed policies. Many voters are being sold the idea that there is a new dawn. e is in the process of being renewed, they are told. ere is a narrative that goes roughly like this: Ramaphosa has had to bide his time, just as he did in order finally to win the Presidency. But the biding will be over on th May. en he will have a mandate to sweep away the rot and emerge with a nice, clean cabinet to lead a reformed . So our duty as electors is clear – give the the biggest mandate possible because to support is to support Ramaphosa and the big broom. Since the beginning of Ramaphoria, The focus on extractive industries – digging rock and shipping it out – must be fundamentally changed. The Amandla has been consistently saying that President’s “back to the future” dream of restoring the South African economy through more energetic, more ef cient mining, is not only an illusion. It is also dangerous. this is a dream. Ramaphosa is no great reformer. He expresses shock at the state of Eskom. Yet he was the head of Zuma’s as Ben Cousins explained in Amandla! support. eir left orientation is being war room established in to deal , expropriation without compensation undermined by the extreme articulation with load shedding. While we tend to be is not the key issue when it comes to a of a narrow African nationalism and a forgiving nation, we cannot forget nor productive approach to the land question. racialised discourse when it comes ignore his role in the Marikana massacre. e ’s claim to difference has often to other oppressed sections of the e police intervened at his behest. His lain in their approach to cronyism and population, such as so-called coloureds company Shanduka held at least a corruption. However, the shenanigans and Indians. stake in Lonmin. Moreover, what was in the metros where the has been in And then there is the authoritarianism he doing while the Zuptas were looting power have damaged that narrative. e and intolerance of difference that suggest the country? Was he not the Deputy has made clear that they are not above a major deficit when it comes to questions President? cadre deployment, as they showed with of democracy within the . ere is Ramaphosa sits on a knife edge. In the the Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga’s a strong sense that if you differ from , he presides but does not have power. unqualified Chief of Staff. Nor are they the Commander in Chief, you will be e looting reaches right down to protected from vicious faction fights, as marginalised. every local area of South Africa. It would they have shown in the protracted and Numsa’s has very little profile not be turned around even if Ramaphosa damaging battle with Patricia de Lille in outside of the union and socialist could establish hegemony over the Cape Town. e is very resolute in currents, and it is doubtful that in the national structures. And he manifestly terms of being the party of real estate short space of time before the elections cannot do that. developers, intent on selling state property they will be able to gain traction outside So the offers us more of the same. to capital and driving the poor further of their immediate circles. Its articulation And we can see where that has got us. from the city. “Reclaim the city” has been of its politics as Marxist Leninism (Incidentally, we can’t afford to forget battling such proposals in Cape Town. situates the party in the same ideological that this is not just the . It is also the camp as the discredited with its Tripartite Alliance – the supported On the left? Stalinist past. ose looking for a new by the Communist Party and Cosatu.) left politics want to see a party that deals Since seeing the list for the emergence of parties positioning with issues of the changing nature of elections, there has been more support themselves to the left of the , in the working class in the context of mass for our view that nothing is changing particular in the form of the and unemployment and precarious forms of in the , as known villains find their Numsa’s workers party, the . But labour, climate change, gender oppression, way high up the list. e Zuma faction is the question that needs to be considered sexuality and the role of the state within by no means vanquished. Nor will it be is to what extent either party offers a a globalised and financialised economy. vanquished by what happens on th May. consistent anti-capitalist politics capable ey may be disappointed by the ’s of providing a platform for worker and orthodoxy. Several comrades who have On the right? community struggles. joined the express concern over For a while, the seemed to be the party’s lack of structures and decision significantly different from those of riding the wave, with a constant profile making processes. the . ey might speed up the from their parliamentary dramas with So it may be that we will have to wait privatisation of State Owned Enterprises Zuma. But they have been damaged for the local government elections to (s) but the strategy is essentially the politically by their opportunistic support see political formations that give greater same. ey might resist any change to the for municipalities as well as their expression to the struggles of working Constitution on the land question, but, equally opportunistic withdrawal of that class communities.
Amandla! Issue No.63 7 APRIL 2019 FEATURE PLACEHOLDER TEXT
Elections promise rural people; the elected forget them By Lubabalo Ntsholo
Municipality. Almost three years later, life has remained constant for the residents of that municipality, as much as it has remained constant for many rural dwellers across the country. Rural areas abandoned total of the struggles faced by rural people, which have been left unresolved, ignored and forgotten since . e systematic, structural and functional problems encountered by rural people have remained constant for decades. Rural dwellers have become the surplus people of the land, remembered only when it is time for elections: • Disintegrated family structures force the elderly to raise their grandkids, who are themselves eventually forced by circumstances to nurse their grandparents. • Abandoned road infrastructure renders mobility almost impossible in rural areas. • A dysfunctional schooling system, broken down public health provision, chronic unemployment, government ineptitude and blatant corruption make it difficult for committed public sector workers, such as the doctor I encountered at Gida Hospital, to stay On our way to the hospital, we drove on a dangerous gravel road that had potholes that have been turned to ponds. and use their skills for the benefit of For over twenty years, the municipality has forgotten that roads need to be maintained. the public. • Water taps installed just after are , has forgotten that roads need to be dry half the time. ere is no sanitation, rural home in Keiskammahoek, maintained. On the journey we had to and potential farmland has been left to Eastern Cape, as I usually do during replace a burst tyre. When we got to lie fallow because there is no coherent Iholidays. en, one rainy night the hospital, after much fighting to get form of support for agricultural at about am, we were woken up by attention, we were attended to by a young, development. desperate knocks on the door. An eight hopelessly exhausted Indian doctor. year old girl had braved the rain and He told me that he had been working Rural voting fodder the dark to wake us up because her since six o’clock the previous morning, , grandmother was seriously ill and needed alone. He later took me on a tour of the were designed to be native labour to be taken to hospital, kilometres hospital and showed me broken windows, reserves, with very little potential for away. Our first struggle was how we dysfunctional medical machines, lack of sustained and vibrant economic activity. were going to get the granny to the car, medicine, and so on and so forth. But successive administrations have because when it rains in rural Eastern I went back home again, a few not developed any new vision for rural Cape, most homes are inaccessible by car. months before the local government development for the past years. Rural We overcame this obstacle by loading elections, and observed a hive of people are only good in as far as they are her, a critically ill year old, onto a activity, with and posters and voting fodder for political parties. And wheelbarrow, then into the car. activists all round. ey were promising they are very important voting fodder. On our way to the hospital, we drove everyone who cared to listen about the According to Statistics South Africa, on a dangerous gravel road that had manna that would fall on them if their at least of the population in South potholes that have been turned to ponds. parties were voted into power at the Africa lives in urban and peri-urban For over twenty years, the municipality chronically dysfunctional Amahlathi Local areas, with about of the entire urban
Amandla! Issue No.63 8 APRIL 2019 ELECTIONSPLACEHOLDER TEXT population residing in Gauteng. Just over of the population still lives in rural areas, locked in by the deficiencies highlighted above. ese population dynamics pose some strategic challenges for political parties, particularly for the ruling party. e lost a significant majority of urban voters during the local government elections. ey were completely decimated by the in Cape Town, lost the symbolically important Nelson Mandela Bay, lost control of the capital City of Tshwane, and lost the economic centre of the country, the City of Johannesburg. It is unlikely that they will ever manage to claw back support in these. A further significant drop in support in Gauteng alone will have serious ramifications for its overall national support. Notable reductions in support in KwaZulu Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo would spell the Traditional Leaders at Bhisho Stadium in Eastern Cape. At the centre of political strategy to attract voters is end of rule. So, reorienting their appeasement of traditional leaders. They have the misguided belief that traditional leaders are gateways to rural voters. election machinery to revitalise their rural base is very important for their future successive laws since have given of traditional leadership for at least the electoral survival. immense power to chiefs to control, past years. Governance in these areas make deals, and even sell the land for has completely disintegrated too, with Traditional leaders don’t their own personal benefit. thoroughly inept municipal councils, represent rural interests completely detached from the people. In the absence of these structures of rural voters betrays their lack of a myriad of people, political parties governance, civil society movements appreciation of the struggles faced by have capitulated to the whims and play a crucial role in plugging some of rural people. Quite honestly, very few manipulation of traditional leaders. is the gaps, and in facilitating alternative political parties seem to have invested demonstrates a spectacular failure to forms of economic participation, from the time to understand the depth of the respond to some of the most pressing ground up. ese civil society movements, problems faced by rural people. issues raised by rural people. What they such as Ntinga Ntaba ka Ndoda in At the centre of political strategy propose for traditional leadership is what Keiskammahoek, despite their noble to attract voters is appeasement of can best be described as cosmetic. It is an ideals and supernatural determination, traditional leaders. ey have the attempt to reconfigure the institution of are also locked in another struggle, the misguided belief that traditional leaders traditional leadership, without taking the struggle to merely survive. One day, are gateways to rural voters. is is not power and giving it to the people. is perhaps we may write about the tragic backed up by any empirical evidence. leaves rural people locked into second hypocrisy of the civil society movement, Quite to the contrary, when parliament class citizenship. ey are condemned the gatekeeping and the attempt to was conducting public hearings for the to be led by feudal lords who are used control the struggles of rural people by Traditional Leadership and Khoisan Bill, by politicians and unscrupulous mining urban based people with access to huge there were in total over people who companies for their own selfish ends. donor funds, whose work in entrenching made submissions. Most of them noted is only perpetuates the continuing rural democracy is only superficial. the hell-like conditions they were forced domination of rural people by a small As things stand, rural people are to live under by their so-called traditional feudal and mainly male rural oligarchy. caught. On the one hand politicians who leaders. Among other issues, they all It only cements the exclusion of women are woefully out of their depth in terms raised the following: from decision-making processes. And it of understanding what needs to be done. • Rural people need to have the right to further entrenches the power of rogue On the other, established civil society decide the use of their own land. ey traditional leaders to sell off pieces of organisations who only see rural people need to see accountability for revenues land and make deals with multinational as a means through which they can earned off their land. And they need companies, as with the Xolobeni access money and prestige, while stunting to have a say over the boundaries that community in the Eastern Cape. authentic development of rural-based define their identities. e strategy of appeasing traditional civil society organisations. Rural people • Rural people want to be consulted when leaders will surely not do anything for remain alone, locked in grinding poverty decisions that have a direct impact on democratisation and development of rural and imposed underdevelopment. But their lives are taken. ese decisions areas. It will only create distance between they persist, as they have always done, to should be based on their own evolving political parties and the rural electorate. live their lives in dignity. Rural people are customs, on the law, and on the truly on their own. Constitution. Gatekeeping by civil • Chiefs are not private owners of the society movement land. ey are custodians of the land for , Lubabalo Ntsholo is an EFF parliamentary the benefit of entire communities. But the area I come from, with no history researcher. He is writing in his personal capacity.
Amandla! Issue No.63 9 APRIL 2019 FEATURE PLACEHOLDER TEXT
localisation and create jobs, while recognising the reality that we have Searching for just one large coal reserves that can provide cheap energy that can also assist with affordable prices. party for a just transition • Take forward Nedlac’s Green Economy By Janet Cherry Accord on renewable energy. We will ensure that workers are treated fairly and reskilled and that the needs of people and the environment are at the centre of a just transition to a sustainable and low carbon energy future.”
need for a just transition, the danger is that its concept of just transition is limited to a tinkering with the existing Minerals Energy Complex. Is DA any better? , opposition party, offers remarkably similar rhetoric in its commitment to policies which respond to climate threats. It seems to understand climate threats as