Several towns in the Northern Cape have seen service delivery protests in recent times. These have been taking place with no political leadership dictating the pace or the nature of the struggles. Communities are grappling with a number of issues, which include amongst other things: housing, corruption, maladministration, lack of sanitation and water.

The Lerato Park Housing Project in Kimberley is riddled with a number of problems. One such problem is that beneficiaries of the project, who are people who have been staying in shack dwellings in the area, have been excluded from the list whereas people from outside of the area have already occupied the houses that have been built. These issues have been brought to the attention of the Sol Plaatje Municipality, but there is no resolution forthcoming.

This is not by accident. The municipal councillors are not performing their duties. They are not visible and in some cases, the community does not even know who the councillor is. What is sad is that the very unproductive councillors have been given computer tablets by the Sol Plaatje Municipality and recently the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) has been advocating for them to be paid the same exorbitant salaries as members of the national and provincial parliaments.  As things stand, the municipal manager of Sol Plaatje is earning about R2 million per annum and the increases in rates and taxes is only used to fund the lavish lifestyle of the manager and the councillors.

To rub salt into their wounds, Sol Plaatje residents are paying the highest rate for electricity when compared to all municipalities in South Africa. The community of Lerato Park has been labelled “rude” by the Premier of the Northern Cape for simply demanding what is rightfully theirs. She even went further to say if they continue with the protest action, the housing project will be stopped. The community is furious and in some instances did not want to listen to promises being made by the politicians.

The Roodepan community is also up in arms regarding service delivery issues and feel that their informal settlements are being ignored, whilst new ones established elsewhere are being given attention. They have vowed not to stop calling on the municipality and the provincial government to develop their informal settlement, which includes a block of municipal flats that is a danger to them as a result of structural defects which have been there for years.

These struggles seem to be isolated, but when analysed, there is a connection between all of them. They expose the corruption and maladministration within municipalities. They demonstrate the seriousness of the issues that the communities are grappling with and bring together various elements that would normally not be working together. What is lacking is a principled leadership as opposed to those who are easily co-opted to form part of the oppressive ruling class.  This is an opportunity that should not be missed to show the people the interconnectedness of their struggles with the resolution of the National Question.