(Mr Dlingiziwe Ngubane, the leader of the community, sharing a drink of Zulu beer with neighbours)
(By Subry Govender)
During the apartheid era in South Africa - prior to 1994 - most black South Africans lived in villages under the former regime's independent and semi-independent homelands. Today 20 years after the dawn of democracy - these homeland people expected changes in their lives. But for many their lives have not changed much - they are still without the basic essentials - electricity, running water, proper schools. Some high school children have to walk four hours a day to attend schools many kilometres away from their homes. One of my colleagues from Radio Deutsche Welle, Asumpta Lattus, and I visited one of the villages in a remote area of KwaZulu-Natal early in April to get a first hand picture of the lives of rural communities...........
(A villager tending to his cows in the illage of Mtunzini)
Situated in a deep rural area, about 65 kilometres from the city of Pietermaritzburg in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, is a farming village called Mtunzini.
The village is in a deep valley surrounded by hills and wattle trees. The villagers, made up of 16 families, have been living here for more than 200 years.
Most of them occupy homes made up of rondaval-type mud huts. At least one house is built of brick. Except for a run-down lower primary school, there are no other facilities in this village. They eke out a living by working as labourers on neighbouring white-owned farms.
In order to reach the village, we had to drive the final 20 kilometres on dirt and corrugated road.
(Cows make up the wealth of the community)
My colleague, Asumpta Lattus, and I were met by villagers who appeared to be surprised and puzzled to see us there. When we explained that we represented an international broadcasting company in Germany and wanted to speak to the villagers about whether their lives had changed after 20 years of freedom, they readily welcomed us and agreed for us to visit and talk to one of the nearby families.
(Two women elders of the village at a meeting in the local lower primary school)
Seventy-four-year-old Dlingiziwe Ngubane escorted us to his homestead made up of several mud huts, a little vegetable garden, and chicken and dogs running around. Mr Ngubane introduced us to his 70-year-old wife, Batusile, and then informed us that they had 20 children and grand-children living in their homestead.
Mr Ngubane shared a can of home-made beer with his neighbours and talked about their lives in the local IsiZulu language.
"I was born here and I can recall that my father and grand-father lived here with their families," he told us through an interpreter.
"We all worked as labourers for neighbouring farmers and also cultivated our small pieces of land. When we voted for the first time 20 years ago, we wanted to see changes in our lives. But we still don't have running water and electricity.
"We also don't have security of tenure for our land that we have been staying in for more than 200 years.
"My family members and I are going to vote again on May 7 in the hope that the Government will see our plight and provide us with property rights, electricity and running water."
(Mr Dlingiziwe Ngubane working in his mealie field)
Mr Ngubane said some of the village children who were going to higher primary and high schools had to walk to their schools and back home for about four hours a day.
"My dream for the future is to see my children and grand-children obtaining a decent education so that they could improve their lives and one day become nurses, teachers and doctors.
"We are very simple people but we also have dreams that our children and grand-children will better their lives. I don't want them to be serfs like us."
(Siyabonga Sithole, community activist)
A community activist who has been trying to help the villagers is Siyabonga Sithole. He is associated with the Association for Rural Advancement (or AFRA) that has its offices in the nearby city of Pietermaritzburg. AFRA promotes the rights of farming communities discriminated and marginalised during the apartheid years. He told us that rural communities are the forgotten people of South Africa.
"It's legacy of apartheid because these people have been working for landowners and didn't get paid for it," he said. "They used to get rights may be to crop or keep livestock on their land in return for their labour.So there is no way we can expect more and, therefore, when you look at the house-holds or the environment here you'll see they are struggling.
"We are voting on May 7, the government officials or political parties will come here to get the people to vote showing that there is a road to come here. But when it comes to service delivery, they make all the excuses that it is too far. When it's comes to development it takes too long.
"These people are part of the country, it's unfortunate that they are forgotten when the government plans for the development of the country."
(Colleague Asumpta Lattus filming for her documentary)
When we drove out of the village, we could see that the villagers had hopes that we would highlight their plight so that the authorities could take note of their situation.
(IFP leader Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi)
Our next stop was to interview the former leader of the old KwaZulu homeland, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who is the leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party. We managed to obtain an interview with him despite his heavy electioneering schedule. Buthelezi acknowledged that some communities in the rural areas had still not tasted full freedom. He said he supported the expropriation of land so that black farming communities could also uplift their lives.
"It's one of the issues with which the country is seized with at present. It's happening in such a slow pace that some of us think that there should be appropriation because the constitution provides for appropriation with compensation.
"Some political parties are calling for expropriation of land without compensation but my party believes that land could be re-distributed through fair compensation."
He was of the view that much of the neglect of the rural communities was due to corruption in government departments.
"I believe that if we root out the corruption we will be able to deliver to the people in rural areas such essentials as electricity, running water, proper roads, schools and clinics."
(Professor Paulus Zulu)
A prominent academic and author, Professor Paulus Zulu, told us that the slow pace of service delivery in many rural communities was due primarily to the lack of efficiency in government departments.
"We are one of the richest countries in the world and there's not excuse that we cannot deliver essential services to many people in rural communities.
"If we stamp out corruption and inefficiency and improve the quality of education, we would make life better for most people," said Professor Zulu, who is based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.
(Senzo Mchunu, Premier of KwaZulu-Natal and leader of the ruling ANC in the province)
The leader of the ruling ANC in the KwaZulu-Natal province is Senzo Mchunu. He is also the Premier of the Province. We caught up with him during a ruling party meeting in Durban. He said since 1994 they had been embarking on various programmes to uplift the lives of rural people. They had also managed to provide essential services to thousands of people in rural communities. But they were mindful of the challenges they still faced.
"We are mindful and very sensitive of the gap that we have to narrow between urban and rural areas which is a fault-line of apartheid," he said.
"Because those areas were neglected with regard to roads, with regard to water, with regard to bridges, with regard to schools, with regard to clinics, with regard to schools, with regard to electricity, all those things.
"We understand the drawbacks of corruption and are doing everything in our power to root out this social evil by targeting officials and others involved in corruption.
"We are a new democracy and we cannot fulfil all the people's dreams in just 20 years. We are doing our best to improve the lives of people by upgrading infrastructure such as roads and rail, education, schools, hospitals and providing opportunities for the poor and disadvantaged."
(Asumpta Lattus with one of the local residents)
The visit to the village of Mtunzini in the KwaZulu-Natal province demonstrates that the plight of black farming communities in the new South Africa after 20 years of freedom is still a cause for concern.
The ruling ANC will have to take appropriate action to fast-track - not only an improvement in their social and economic lives - but also ensure that these communities are given security of tenure on land which they and their ancestors have been occupying for hundreds of years. ends - subry govender
