New mayor has his work cut out in Langa

Maduna Road in Langa township outside Uitenhage looks like many others: the street is piled with litter and uncollected refuse mounts up, street lights do not work and dirty water collects all around the neighbourhood.

This is where, on March 21 1985, more than 21 protesters were shot dead by apartheid police – in what later became known as the Langa massacre – while they were commemorating the Sharpeville atrocity.

This week, residents took to the same 2.5km stretch of road again in protest.

On the same day the ANC announced that Danny Jordaan would take over as the city’s mayor, residents of Ward 50 were demanding low-cost government houses, sick of the shacks and backyard rentals they live in now.

Protester Thembalethu Njombane (24), an unemployed resident, said he had lost all hope in the ANC and would now vote for the Economic Freedom Fighters in next year’s local government elections.

“People here are hungry for service delivery, jobs and houses, and there are none forthcoming. The government should open opportunities for jobs instead of wasting money on tenders which only serve to enrich a few people,” he said.

Njombane said he took part in the protests at which he toyi-toyied and sang struggle songs because he wanted to force the ANC government to listen.

On Maduna Road this week, black marks and ash on the ground were what remained of the burning tyres, though the blockage caused by burnt logs remained.

Statistical information aggregator Wazimap revealed that 61% of Ward 50’s residents voted for the ANC in last year’s provincial elections, 31% for the DA and 4% for the Economic Freedom Fighters.

Like Njombane, many residents of Ward 50 do not have jobs – only 27.3% are employed. Young men and women stand on corners, or wander up and down the street all day. The average monthly household income, according to the 2011 census, is R2 400.

But it’s not just the unemployed who are disenchanted with the ANC.

Tim Macquire (25), an intern at the department of public works, said he, too, would vote for the EFF, saying the ANC had failed him and his community. And even though the ANC had brought in Jordaan, this was not enough to persuade him.

“Danny Jordaan is not going to change anything. The ANC in Jordaan is giving us a celebrity, instead of service delivery. What we want are houses and decent jobs, we want clean drinking water and sanitation– and we won’t vote for any political party that does not deliver on those,” he said.

But for Noxolo Kondile (38), the ANC is the only political party that can bring change and hope.

“I will vote for the ANC because before I did not have a house and through the ANC I now have a place I can call home and raise my kids,” she said.

“Yes, there are challenges, not only here in Langa but in all other areas, but that cannot make me vote for a different political party. I still trust in the ANC.”

Kondile, a hawker who sells fruits and sweets at the gates of Limekhaya High School in Maduna Road, believes the ANC will win.

Nearby, single father Zithobile Mathesa (40) says he will also vote for the ANC, but “they must get rid of the corrupt people so that there can be more service delivery”.

Not all are interested in voting, though.

Desperate for jobs, Nozipho Soncamashe (28) and her friend Lusanda Sililo (24) were on their way back home from Uitenhage, where they had gone to hand their CVs to local shops. Soncamashe is sceptical about voting because it hasn’t changed anything for her.

But Sililo, who had to drop out after her first year as an education student at the Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha because of financial problems, is making a change at the ballot box.

“I should be at school studying for my future but am here in the township watching the sun go down because I have no means.

“I plan to vote for the DA, because at least they keep their promises,” she said.

Down the road, Mncedisi Nombaxaza (54) said he would vote for the ANC but worried that the party had neglected its people and not kept its promises.

Attempts to get comment from Ward 50 councillor, Zolani Ncwadi, who fled the area after the protests, were unsuccessful