“There will be a ‘Khutsong’ revolution as long as the ANC government continue to ignore the voices of the community,” says the organiser of the Tlokwe-Ventersdorp anti-amalgamation protest march, Lucky Mokoena.
Mokoena says the community is irritated at the statement by the provincial secretary of the ANC, Dakota Legoete, who said, “people can march, do whatever they want to – it will not bring them anything, it will not change the ANC’s viewpoint”.
“We will show the Municipal Demarcation Board and the Office of the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta). We will show them the voice of the people. The ANC is failing the people who elected them,” says Mokoena.
As stated in the memorandum handed to the Cogta representative on 11 September, the protesters demanded that the Municipal Demarcation Board and the Minister, Pravin Gordhan, withdraw their decision within 7 days, failing which they would intensify the ‘Khutsong’ revolution.
Mokoena says that, before further action can be taken in Tlokwe, they will first have to consult with the community on the way forward. “After 7 days, the anti-amalgamation committee will hold consultative meetings with the 26 wards of Tlokwe. It is our responsibility to go back to the community and get a mandate from them on what to do next,” he said.
Mokoena believes the Khutsong revolution was caused by the arrogance that the ANC government displayed towards the community, failing to consult the community, failing to adhere to the Batho Pele principles and failing to adhere to Section 26 of the Municipal Act.
“The dishonesty of the government started the Khutsong revolution. In Khutsong, the ruling party circulated a paper within the community and told them to write down their details. They wanted to create a database for services to be rendered to them.”
Similarly, in Potchefstroom, says Mokoena, the ruling party took people’s names and addresses to capture in a database. In informal settlements, they promised people stands for houses, in the township they promised to create a database for unemployed youth, and the elderly were promised groceries.
“Nobody has received any of those promised benefits because the list was submitted to the Municipal Demarcation Board under a different cover page to comply with the requirement of the MDB,” says Mokoena.
A political analyst from the NWU, Prof. Andre Duvenhage believes “there is indeed a parallel between what happened in Khutsong (Merafong) and the current scenario in Potchefstroom/Tlokwe and Ventersdorp. In both cases, there were top-down decisions, politically motivated without proper and constructive consultation. Lack of proper consultation and not following proper processes and structures were evident in both cases. And, in both cases, the ANC/government’s reaction showed little sympathy towards the viewpoints of citizens. In other words, the voices from below fall on deaf ears. Citizens in both these areas were fed up with the ANC-government’s lack of governance, management, administration and the related poor service delivery. The difference, however, is that the dramas played out in different provinces – North West (Potchefstroom/Tlokwe) and Gauteng (Khutsong/ Merafong).”
Duvenhage observed that “the outcome of the Khutsong/Merafong case was a loss of support for the ANC, continuing patterns of political instability and violence, and high levels of voter apathy.“
“This scenario is also very likely within the Potchefstroom/Tlokwe case. In other words, a “Khutsong revolution” is, indeed, a real possibility.”
