Читать книгу Tafelberg Short: Nkandla - The end of Zuma? - City Press - Страница 5

Nkandla, in the uThungulu district of KwaZulu-Natal, encompasses nearly 115,000 inhabitants, spread relatively sparsely over a large area. The majority of the population are Zulu. The district is well known for several reasons: it is the home of popular maskandi music and the evergreen Ekhombe forest that houses unique species and promotes eco-tourism.

It is also the birthplace of South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma.

Born in Nkandla on April 12 1942, as a young man Zuma herded cattle and did not get an opportunity to gain a formal education. When his policeman father died at the end of World War 2, Zuma’s mother took up employment as a domestic worker in Durban. Zuma spent his childhood moving between Durban and Nkandla. Owing to his deprived childhood, he never had formal schooling except a year or two at eMathungela.

He joined the ANC in 1959, orchestrated an anti-pass campaign in Nkandla in the 1950s and became active in Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1962 after the banning of the ANC. While on his way out of South Africa, he was arrested outside Zeerust with 45 other recruits. He spent 10 years in Robben Island. On his release, Zuma spent a short time at home in Nkandla.

After going into exile in 1975 he rose in the ANC to head its intelligence department in 1980 while in Lusaka, Zambia. Later he headed the ANC’s underground structures. After surviving a rape trial and corruption allegations he defeated Thabo Mbeki in 2007 to become party president and, in 2009, was inaugurated as State President of South Africa.

Until it became famous as the hometown of Jacob Zuma, life in Nkandla had gone on as it had for decades: simply.

The village was isolated and underdeveloped, like its neighbours. Debates around politics, ethnicity and governance were as remote and as far removed as Pretoria was in distance.

Nkandla, which is in rural KwaZulu-Natal, is severely impoverished and ranks among the areas in the country where many children are dying and where basic services are lacking.

In Census 2011 data, 12 municipalities with below-average access to sanitation services had a significantly higher-than-average percentage of deaths of children under five; among them Nkandla and others in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, North West and Mpumalanga.

Nkandla, where Zuma’s homestead is, also ranks among the worst. Deaths of under-fives amounted to 20% of all deaths there. The census also shows: 62% of households rely on boreholes, rivers and springs, among things, for water; 14% have no formal toilet; and almost no one has a refuse removal service.

In a letter to City Press in October 1999, members of the Ngomo community in the Nkandla district wrote the following:

We are requesting you to publish the following grievances:

Lack of social development due to inefficiency of our councillor, Sam Myeza.

Lack of transparency: Myeza is unapproachable and he uses public funds for his own benefit.

We as the community request a speedy investigation into the use of public funds.

Myeza holds two positions, the councillorship and chieftaincy.

The former position suffers because of his concentration on his chieftaincy activities.

He appears to use the tribal authority house for his own spaza shop without consulting the community.

We reported this matter to the anti-corruption unit on September last year and we were even given a case number that we still have.

However, there has still been no action taken on the matter.

Concerned community members of Ngomo

In 2005, Kgabo Masehela, a research manager in the Assessment, Technology and Evaluation Education Research Programme, conducted a study about schooling in Nkandla, and wrote this article in City Press:

For me, Nkandla will forever be associated with abject poverty and the desperation on the faces of the children. Despite government policies, resources and structures to alleviate poverty and improve the quality of education, it seems nothing has filtered down to the poorest of the poor.

I asked a Grade 3 teacher about the living conditions of pupils.

The level of poverty was “terrible”, she said. “Many parents are unemployed and there is no work here. Many people just stay at home and grow dagga in the mountains, then the police arrest them. They just sit at home and drink traditional beer.”

The children’s results were poor. There was a tremendous gulf between the required skills and their capabilities. Of the 17 schools tested, only six had active feeding schemes. Absenteeism and dropout rates were high.

Some teachers were eager to improve conditions at the schools. They asked for advice.

I agonised over why a society as rich and frequently as generous as ours would leave these children in such destitution. Children in rural areas deserve the same quality of education as those in affluent suburbs. If the children of politicians were enrolled at these schools, things would definitely change.

If no drastic measures are taken, they will continue to experience pangs of hunger, inadequate schooling and crippling disease. They will be broken in mind and spirit unless we, as a caring nation, do something about it.

In the midst of this struggle for survival is President Jacob Zuma’s homestead.

Contrary to common perception, Zuma’s residence is not located in the town of Nkandla but some 40 kilometres to the south beyond the Nkandla Forest. Approaching the compound from the direction of Kranskop, the first thing that strikes the eye is not the Zulu rondavels for his bodyguards, but two Astroturf soccer pitches.

The pitches, emblazoned with KwaZulu-Natal sports and recreation department slogans exhorting youngsters to stay off the booze, look like nobody has ever hammered one into their goals.

An internal fence divides the 20 or so security cottages, which are vacant for most of the year, from the family compound property. Zuma’s massive security contingent only travels to Nkandla when he visits or goes home for the festive season.

It, like most of the traditional homesteads in that part of Zululand, is built with the houses circling the area that would traditionally be used as a cattle kraal.

In the Zumas’ case, the hub of the complex is an entertainment area. Fanning out from the party zone are a series of houses for Zuma, his wives and children – some of which are linked by underground tunnels. Then follows the family’s private clinic, the on-site fire department, and more accommodation for minders and staff quarters. Internal fences separate each zone.

Above the main house is the double helipad, used by the president and his more affluent visitors, which is not visible from the road.

Outside the main perimeter fence, but still fenced off from the public, is a large vegetable garden, below it a cleared field.

Across the perimeter fence, which is covered in security cameras linked to an on-site control centre, is a separate collection of blue-grey painted houses, where Zuma’s flamboyant taxi driver-turned-millionaire nephew, Khulubuse, lives.

The family compound was a relatively modest collection of thatched houses when Zuma became president in 2009.

Before he became a public figure, nobody cared what the people of Nkandla thought. But it has all changed since the days of Zuma, who has turned the “simple man from Nkandla” motif into his virtual trademark.

Now everybody, including the world’s media, cares what the people of Nkandla think and feel on any given issue, from the rising price of maize meal to the impact of the last G12 summit.