We are now in the municipal election season countrywide. Political parties are positioning themselves for an out-of-the-ordinary election.

Emfuleni’s voters have to be wide awake. From history we know droughts and floods shaped the course of local politics in the 20th century. Local ratepayers associations kicked out useless councillors if ‘stinking’ municipal sewers polluted neighbourhoods.

Since 1994 South Africa’s political landscape has changed. Our constitution now rightly stresses human rights. Racism is out. Equity is in.

In 2021 our political parties either support social democracy, or libertarian democracy.

Social democracy is when the state plays a prime role in the lives of people they democratically rule. Social democracy’s spectrum of support covers a decolonisation discourse, on the left, and a mutation of Scandinavian socialism in the centre.

Libertarian democracy, in turn, sports a state where democratic laws safeguard personal freedom and a strong free market, like in the United States. It promotes individualism and strong capitalism on the left, while the centre seeks group rights and a responsive free market.

South Africa is a complex developing society. Race, ethnicity, poverty, weakened systems of government and the economy are notable features. In 2021 we live under disorientating global pandemic conditions, feeding into growing public support for populist leaders.

Some national political behavioural trends differ at the local level – especially in towns and cities, like Emfuleni. We do not always fit into the impersonal national picture.

For example, when Emfuleni’s residents engage socially they are well-disposed to all, as befits an industrial society where ties of friendship and good-neighbourliness have evolved since the 19th century.

We also reside on the banks of the Vaal River. The Vaal’s water, with all local wetlands, shapes how we see and feel about ourselves and our neighbourhoods.

Our drinking water is safe, but has been reduced, because the municipality is in in arrears with its bulk water supply account to Rand Water.

DWS is now working on resolving Emfuleni’s wastewater woes. It is not responsible for the polluted stormwater flowing into the river after rain showers.

Ward committees, local newspapers, radio stations and neighbours need to communicate with local politicians. Especially those who represent them after 2021’s local elections.

At the February 2021 forum meetings of the upstream Vaal Dam catchment, several Mpumalanga and Free State municipal councillors engaged, demanding prompt actions by all water authorities. They know municipal and industrial pollution wastewater may not compromise the Vaal Dam’s water quality.

Those talks were in stark contrast to February’s four Vaal Barrage catchment forums. No councillors or officials attended. Instead activists of SAVE and VEJA had to engage on Emfuleni’s behalf.

The next water forum meetings are in May. Future Emfuleni councillors should attend these water deliberations. Voters may just take note.

* The author is an extraordinary professor in the Faculty of Humanities at North-West University’s Vanderbijlpark campus.