Popo Molefe: From politics to fixing potholes
Former North West premier Popo Molefe is hardly sniffed or seen in the ANC corridors, but has become a successful business person in Knysna and thrown his lot behind community projects.
The struggle hero par excellence — who in his younger days intimately knew the brutality of the apartheid system, but held on to his political convictions of justice as one of the leaders of the Black Consciousness Movement, United Democratic Front and the ANC — now worries about problems such as fixing potholes.
From his halcyon days of addressing cheering crowds, the 72-year-old now collaborates and expends his energy with his Afrikaner colleagues — or you could call them cadres of different kind — in a different human struggle to fix the country’s collapsing infrastructure.
“Comrade Jo,” he said. “Now the new struggle is to spruce up our towns, to remove grime and collaboratively work together with members of the Knysna community to fix potholes.
“This is what we do in Knysna, which must be seen as an offshoot of what the Presidential Operation Vulindlela seeks to achieve — to fix the infrastructure. We need to all, as South Africans, consistent with the offerings of the Freedom Charter, to debunk this rubbish spread by some organisations, peddling untruths about our country.”
This is an apparent reference to moves by the right-wing Afrikaner rights group AfriForum and other organisations that have lobbied the United States government to take punitive measures against the government over what they claim is the persecution of white South Africans.
“We need to work together, work hard, all the people of this country, to fix our country, to get it where it should be, and to encourage as many people to do the same, in little and big ways, and this by each doing little things in our localities,” added Molefe, who is also a former chair of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and Transnet.
His Afrikaner comrades in Knysna include Eugene Vermaak and Jan van der Westhuizen, both business people in the town who are committed to fulfil the words of former US president John F Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
“We are committed to fix broken roads, closing potholes and fixing bursting sewer pipes, which spill human waste in the streets, with the potential of spreading diseases among communities,” said Molefe.
He spoke against the backdrop of a country struggling with the many dysfunctional municipalities, which has resulted in poor local governance, and seen several placed under administration.
Molefe said Vermaak and Van der Westhuizen have deployed all forms of resources to ensure that where the local council shows weaknesses, community members are encouraged to plug the holes, and contribute money towards fixing broken infrastructure.
“Talk to these guys, and hear for yourself what kind of commitment they have to mobilise community work to ensure that Knysna becomes a functioning council, and attends to infrastructural defects for the good of the ratepayers,” Molefe said.
They are keen to remain apolitical in their efforts, Vermaak said. “We don’t want to apportion blame. What we want to say is that coalition governance Knysna is failing the community by not keeping the town’s infrastructure working.
“Whatever the difficulties, we want to state that we are committed to supporting the council — our function is to facilitate, and not to take over the running of the council but to collaborate by doing what we can do to fix the potholes, and play a facilitating role to ensure that there is no complete dysfunctionality in our town.
“There is a coalition of the ANC, EFF [Economic Freedom Fighters], Patriotic Alliance and Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners. We do not criticise. We help the council where it falls short, but we have to make sure we do not incur legal liabilities in whatever form, and so we will offer support, and partner with them.”
Vermaak noted that the political environment is dysfunctional. “Hence our call to community members to shoulder other functions, such as closing potholes, sourcing water pipes, which had to be flown from Botswana, as well as getting technical expertise to fix broken infrastructure, such as waste water treatment plants, among others.
“We are not engineers, and we will not get involved, but we will speak to plumbers, speak to people with expertise in waste water treatment, since the plant has been out of commission for two years,” he said.
“The plant is back in service; 10 engineers were dispatched from Gqeberha to sort out the problem and other ancillary challenges. We are grateful to a local businessman who funded the project, forking out R500 000.”
The business people have formed the Knysna Infrastructure Group, working with the council.
The group has about 10 000 members from a local population of about 103 000. Each member contributes R100 a month to the group’s coffers, so that it can reach a sustainable target of R100 000 a month.
Other people contribute more than the stipulated R100 to ensure “we have enough money to cover expenses and run the project”.
The Knysna Business Forum “adds value by making the town a better place than it was yesterday” and serves as catalyst for attracting and retaining businesses in the area “to foster a thriving and sustainable community”, said Van der Westhuizen.
Intact infrastructure was necessary to attract investments to keep the town economically afloat. For that reason, it was important that the community take it upon itself to fix potholes and other problems.
“We cannot develop this town without good infrastructure, and so it is important that we commit ourselves to fixing the infrastructure, and this requires that all of us as community make a monetary contribution to attend to defective infrastructure,” Van der Westhuizen said.
“The ANC has good people, but let the council focus on improving service delivery, and work towards improving the infrastructure, using the cadres it has for this objective.”
Jo-Mangaliso Mdhlela is an Anglican priest and an independent journalist.