Like us on facebook Follow us Tu e s d a y 062 578 3098 Daily Dispatch @ D i s p at c h _ D D February 20, 2018 OPINION 9 Daily LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Motherhood is not for sissies in the Good Luck Mr President SOUTH Africa has finally emerged from the Disp atch nightmare years of Zuma presidency. ‘anti-mothering’ system we live in To the end, Mr Zuma demeaned the people of South Africa and the oath he took to uphold the constitution by claiming that he did not know what HEN I decided to pursue unfounded. You will get the risks lectured while sitting down because he had done wrong. Well the vast majority of CR must give an academic career, I and opportunities weighed up for I’d had a caesarean and was still South Africans, not least the most vulnerable W thought I could best serve you by doctors and you will start having post-partum bleeding. people living in dire poverty, know what he has society this way. I also always wanted f r e tt i n g ! I thought about women in worse done wrong. Our hope, Mr Zuma, is that Lady to be a mother, and in my head I had Fourth, taking time out to do a employment conditions. I wondered Justice is coming for you, and all those who NPA its bite imagined being an academic would doctorate meant that I disqualified how on earth they did it. assisted you in your self-enrichment project. allow me this. But I suppose, like other myself from accruing the very It seemed to me the world was As President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the OZENS of commentators have aspects of growing up, you only know employee benefits I needed for first- anti-mothering. Sona address in parliament on Friday, I was called on President Cyril something when you are in it. time motherhood. Out of a sense of indignation about beyond grateful that it was not being delivered by Ramaphosa to streamline cabinet First, I discovered that my job was When I joined a university after the way our employment systems either Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma or Jacob Zuma. D incompatible with my idealised vision graduation I was pregnant, and the put my industrial production over and to people it with those qualified and I think our new President genuinely has the best committed to do the job they are tasked with. of motherhood. It turns out that as an university would not pay for my my role in human reproduction, I interests of all South Africans at heart. He will academic, I am constantly medical aid because the pregnancy decided to take my baby to all work He has already indicated that he intends to work hard and deploy the best people to mend our researching, writing and travelling. was classified a pre-existing meetings so that I could breastfeed. I broken institutions and put our country on a path do exactly that. When I am home, the divide condition! They also told me I did was a militant demand breastfeeder. to recovery. We surely all wish him well in the But he needs to do more than just flush between home and work does not ON REFLECTION not qualify for paid maternity leave My colleagues did not even bat an mammoth task. Only in the sphere of his the bloated, bent and floundering cabinet he really exist. I spend a lot of time because I was a new employee. eyelid, and I was grateful that the comments in the Sona on education do I disagree. inherited and infuse it with new blood. He behind the computer, reading or This seemed like a cruel trap to university allowed that, but I was Zuma’s announcement of free tertiary education needs to find a way to quickly restore the marking reams of assignments. NOMALANGA me. I had gone off to get a PhD aware that it was only because I was has thrown a real spanner into the works. Second, in the first three years of because as junior academics we had an academic. independence and efficacy of this country’s I know the young beneficiaries of this my child’s life, my more serious MKHIZE been told that the country need a Through the first three years of announcement will be howling with outrage that I state institutions that are crucial to our con- research was simply non-existent. new generation of suitably qualified the child’s life, it felt like my brain hold such an opinion. But let me explain. stitutional democracy. Under former pres- I had neither the mental nor the black women. Yet taking the time to only operated on half its capacity. I Every cent we can spend on education is money ident Jacob Zuma, most of these institutions physical power to conduct deep and pursue a doctorate full-time meant rarely finished a paper. well spent. But, in SA there are other dire were peopled with his acolytes and lost all rigorous investigation. advised me to get my doctorate giving up my job. Often I joked that I needed a wife necessities too – social development, improved credibility in the eyes of the citizenry. What this meant was that I spent a before having kids. I followed this Last, I returned to work six weeks because it seemed like the reason health services and housing to name a few. First among these institutions that need lot more time on the teaching advice, and do not regret it; except I after the baby’s birth. My head of my male counterparts managed And we have to cut our cloth according to our treadmill. discovered that I became anxious department had been sympathetic their parenting and careers was that means. We do not have an unlimited budget for attention is the National Prosecuting Au- Research was written under about my ticking biological clock and enough to rearrange my teaching so they had wives. education because our country is in serious debt. thority (NPA). Its record during Zuma’s pressure, and nowhere near the only becoming a mother after 30. that it did not coincide with the Balancing mothering and working So whatever we have must be wisely and carefully tenure has been dismal and the courts have quality and volume that could create Anyone who tells women they will delivery. I needed my income demands remains a battle for me. spent. Basic education is in crisis. The matric pass found it wanting in numerous matters re- meaningful debate in my field. not get nervous about having kids because I did not qualify for paid Hats off to all women. I don’t know rate is nothing to be proud of. Sadly, many of the lated to the former president. Third, some wise women had late is wrong – and the fears are not leave, so I went back to work and how you do it. youth emerging with a Grade 12 certificate are Many of the court judgments expose Na- just not prepared for tertiary education (or the job tional Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun market). They cannot read with comprehension, write without mistakes or do basic calculations. Abrahams as having shamelessly shielded For the most part, basic education facilities are Zuma in, among other things, his fight totally inadequate. A child drowned in a pit toilet. against more than 780 corruption- and I taught maths and statistics to first-year univer- fraud-related charges. sity students for most of my working life. The first- Despite the Supreme Court of Appeal de- year failure rate is so high precisely because cision setting aside the NPA’s 2009 decision students come so ill-prepared to deal with both the content and pace of tertiary level. Failure rates of to withdraw charges against him, Abrahams 40% represent such a waste of resources. So I say has been slow to reinstate them. available budget should prioritise basic education. He also, without even the vaguest cause, No doubt, our challenges are many here in SA. sought to pursue criminal charges against But with President Ramaphosa in charge, there is Zuma’s most vociferous critic, former fi- optimism and above all, hope. Good luck Mr nance minister Pravin Gordhan. President! — Joyce Miles, East London The North Gauteng High Court also set aside what it termed Abrahams’s clearly Change in step with time irrational and expedient decision to with- draw charges of perjury and fraud against CONGRATULATIONS to ANC Eastern Cape chair his deputy Nomgcobo Jiba, another Zuma and deputy chair comrades Mabuyane and Mvoko acolyte. It had also instructed Zuma to hold on having been sworn in as MPLs. an inquiry into Jiba and Special Director of This is attributed to the entire ANC membership in the province which asserted that zizakujika Public Prosecutions Lawrence Mrwebi’s fit- izinto (things will change for the better) in our ness to hold office in the NPA. province and reclaim our sterling role in the In a final defiant gesture to the courts, national politics of our country. Abrahams has refused to step down in the We as the rank and file of the ANC are at ease face of a court ruling that his own appoint- with this deployment championed by the p r ov i n c i a l ment, at the behest of Zuma, was unlawful executive committee, as we hope for synergy and watertight implementation of resolutions taken in and invalid after the R17-million golden our eighth ANC Eastern Cape conference and handshake Zuma gave to ensure his more provincial lekgotla, which detailed how the independent predecessor Mxolisi Nxasana provincial government can work with national and left. By denuding the NPA of its indepen- local government to build social cohesion through dence and peopling it with staff whose loy- opening opportunities for economic growth. alty to him took precedence over their abil- The Eastern Cape continues to have u n t ap p e d opportunities such as its ocean economy, which ity to do their job, Zuma did more than just could create many sustainable jobs, and there is secure his own safety – and that of his state- potential for agriculture and industrial capturing benefactors – from prosecution. d eve l op m e n t . He also robbed the institution of its morale Of course the mammoth strides led by the ANC and its ability to do its job. to develop our province are noticeable. Zuma and his henchmen in cabinet, did No n e t h e less, infrastructural backlogs, decaying the same hatchet job on the supposedly small towns with alarming population growth and the rising challenges of unemployment and independent Directorate for Priority Crime poverty require us to change the captains and Investigation – better known as the Hawks – find new ways of doing things. — Zibele Xuba, which was tasked with dealing with cor- via e-mail ruption, commercial crime and organised crime. Poor policing and a weak prosecutorial NOTE TO WRITERS: body in a country where serious violent Write to the Editor at PO Box 131 East London crime, corruption and commercial crime is 5200. E-mail: [email protected]. so flagrant is problematic on every level. Ramaphosa has little chance of implement- Fax: (043) 043 748 1723. Please include your ing change until this is corrected. name, telephone number and address. He needs to make sure the NPA can again The Editor reserves the right to edit or reject fulfil its mandate to prosecute “without fear, letters. Letters by readers writing under their favour and prejudice”. IN SYNC: Sara Hurtado and Kirill Khaliavin of Spain show off their skills in the Ice Dance short dance competition, part of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, own full names will be given preference. held at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, South Korea yesterday ●Our cartoonist, Miles, is on leave this week Picture: REUTERS Give priority to ‘managed land settlement’

HE centre will not hold until the who participate in the occupation. Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (19 of government makes more land Unauthorised land occupation, on the 1998) and providing alternative accom- T available for human settlements. other hand, occurs when people have been modation in situations where people would Disturbing scenes played out last month, evicted from a particular piece of land, for be rendered homeless by eviction. when members of the public flocked to an example a farm by a farm owner, and have Thirdly, on the question of how to deal open piece of land along the busy R72 road nowhere else to go. with unauthorised land occupation that in what the media dubbed “the biggest Our courts are generally more lenient could happen in the future – in our opinion attempt at land grab” our city – B u ffa l o and favourably disposed towards a person this is where the government needs to be City Metropolitan Municipality – has seen in a situation where they have nowhere proactive, focus its attention and place as [Saturday Dispatch, January 20]. else to go, but if it is a land invasion, then a priority. Just to paint a picture of why this might the courts will be more inclined to grant The government must make more land be happening, the population in the metro, eviction orders such as what possibly available with at least access to a basic like other large cities around the country, happened in the case on the R72. level of services and allow people to move continues to grow. Generally, people occupy land because onto this land and start to build their own According to our metro’s Built Environ- they don’t have anywhere else to go, but houses in a managed and systematic ment Performance Plan of 2014/15, the this is very debatable because others may manner. This we call “managed land metro has an estimated total of 154 inform- argue that the unauthorised land occupiers s e tt l e m e n t ”. In short, we suggest that the al settlements within its boundaries. “have been living somewhere else before, government prioritise managed land In terms of the Community Survey of so they must just go back to wherever they settlement and make large parcels of land 2016, the population in the metro has come from”. available for it, to pre-empt the need so that grown from 755 000 in 2011 to 810 000 in A potential problem is when people are people don’t have to occupy the land 2016. kicked from one occupation to another. without authorisation. The number of informal dwellings has For example, if the government evicts a Unfortunately, with the delays in the increased from 49 000 in 2011 to 62 000 in RO NA L D group of people from a particular piece of finalisation of the white paper on human 2016, or at a rate of 2 600 households per land, those people go somewhere else, then settlements, we remain unsure of what the annum. EGLIN the government evicts them from there too, policy approach and thinking in govern- The 2011 Census reported an average and they then go somewhere else. ment is with regard to these and other household size of 3.2 persons in the metro, This kind of chasing people from one suggestions made by civil society on how which puts the number of people living in In that research, Afesis-corplan argued occupation to another is problematic in best it can manage to give access to land informal dwelling units at roughly 198 400 first and foremost that there is a legal that it is not solving the problem. for those who desperately need it. people, or almost 25% of the metro’s difference between land invasion (land The conclusion that we came to in our PIECE OF EARTH: In an attempt at land occupation, people flocked to an open piece of land The last draft of the human settlement p op u l at i o n . grab) and unauthorised land occupation. research for the HDA was the government along the R72 near the East London Airport last month Picture: MICHAEL PINYANA white paper came out in November 2015 In 2015, Afesis-corplan did research for This was informed by a legal opinion needs to adopt a three-pronged approach and since then, there have been no further the Housing Development Agency (HDA) given by lawyers from the Socio-Economic in looking at unauthorised land occup- We continue to argue that the solution to occupation as it is happening now, as we drafts. responding to “unauthorised land Rights Institute of South Africa, who ation, namely categorise it into a) this is for the government to implement its recently witnessed on the side of the R72, o c c u p at i o n ”. assisted in the research. occupation that has happened in the past; programme of upgrading informal we recommended to the HDA that the Eglin is a specialist for sustainable The purpose of the research was to make Land invasion occurs where people b) occupation that is happening now; and c) settlements. The problem up to now is that government must follow the rules and settlements at Afesis-corplan, an NGO that recommendations on how the government occupy land or buildings with the express occupation that could happen in the future. the government has been slow to properly implement its own existing laws. This has contributed to community-driven could respond to land invasions or intent to coerce government into providing Land occupation that has happened in implement this programme. includes following the provisions of the development and good local governance in unauthorised land occupation. housing on a preferential basis to those the past is effectively informal settlements. When it comes to dealing with Prevention of Illegal Eviction from, and the Eastern Cape