Dangerous ire over failure to deliver

THE increasing anger shown in protests by township residents in the Nelson Mandela Metro and to a lesser extent on the Garden Route is a troubling message to those in authority. The developments show that thousands of ordinary people are angry and frustrated at the degraded conditions in which they have to exist more than a decade since the coming of non-racial democracy in 1994 – notwithstanding official promises of something better.

The most vexed issue is the most vital – delivery of housing and services.

In the Nelson Mandela Metro that anger has exploded several times lately, not least in Monday’s burning blockades on Uitenhage-Port Elizabeth roads where Mayor Nceba Faku found himself confronted by a hostile crowd.

As a result of the confrontation, he promised to seek more money from Bisho to alleviate their miserable living conditions. But given Bisho’s own fiscal difficulties it is difficult to see how that can be done soon.

The people’s anger is justified. After all these years since the coming of democracy, it is easy to understand the disappointment of the masses who have voted with so much optimism but received so little.

Their disappointment relates to delivery – and to recent exposure of wholesale corruption, influence-peddling, graft, and shoddy workmanship in building municipal houses.

At Knysna the anger is much the same – indignation over failed promises to the poorest of the poor.

And there are millions like them.

True, there are huge numbers of people in line for that longed-for delivery. But they do not want to see shoddy workmanship by corrupt contractors – or councillors themselves deciding whom to reward with these longed-for homes. All citizens who qualify must receive them, not only supporters of the ruling party.

The situation poses grave danger – as the eruption of violence has shown. The matter is urgent and must be treated as such by the powers-that-be.

Focus needed for metro soccer

IT should hardly come as a surprise that the metro council’s planned financial investment into boosting local soccer has been welcomed with such enthusiasm.

Time and again when given the opportunity, local football fans have demonstrated that soccer is one of the most popular sports – if not the most favoured – in the Eastern Cape, especially in the metro.

Only last weekend, another capacity crowd defied bitterly cold and wet weather conditions to watch the Kaizer Chiefs-Bush Bucks PSL match.

Shortly after that, the metro council announced a R700 000 sponsorship of a yet-to-be-selected group of football teams in the PSL second division, to be assisted in progressing to the first division. Clearly there is a need to boost soccer in the metro prior to the eagerly awaited Soccer World Cup in 2010.

However, while we applaud any attempts by the council to stimulate the sport, we question their methods in achieving this.

Rather than throwing small sums of money at clubs, the metro should focus on providing the appropriate infrastructure for football to thrive. That way it would facilitate private sector investment into soccer, as is the case elsewhere in the country.

Also badly needed in local soccer is good administration. Until such time as self-interest is replaced with people’s common interest, our soccer will not mature beyond amateur level.