BY DALE McKINLEY
JOHANNESBURG In a show of people's power, 6000 residents of KwaMasiza Hostel in Sebokeng reoccupied their homes on September 12 after being forcibly evicted a day earlier by thugs employed by a company partly owned by African National Congress (ANC) local government councillors.
In an incredible example of the growing inhumanity with which the poor in the "new" South Africa are treated, armed police and Wozani Security guards (the hated "Red Ants") threw the residents and their belongings into the street without any alternative shelter being offered. Police used water cannon to disperse protesters. It was one of the coldest days of the year. Vicva Investment Trading Company, which is partly owned by three local ANC councillors, initiated the evictions.
During the eviction, police cordoned off the entire hostel area with barbed wire and threatened residents and activists from the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, who had joined the residents to protest against the eviction. Assisted by the Red Ants, the cops attempted to chase the SECC activists away and harassed and intimidated the residents. The protest was declared an "illegal gathering".
The residents have lived in KwaMasiza for many years. For months, Vicva (which bought the hostel from the state-owned Iscor corporation under controversial circumstances) has been attempting to evict the residents. The residents have been assisted by activists of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) in their struggle against Vicva over the last several months.
On September 12, they met and decided to defiantly reoccupy their homes. They removed the barbed wire and re-entered their homes under the cover of darkness.
During the reoccupation, one woman was shot in the legs by police. On September 14, members of Wozani Security attempted to re-evict the families. Outrageously, the Red Ants told the residents that they were engaged in an "illegal gathering" and then, without warning, opened fire with live ammunition. Four people were seriously wounded, including a Wozani Security guard who died at the scene.
For both the residents and the APF, this entire sorry saga is further confirmation of the political hypocrisy and callousness that is an integral part of the privatisation of basic services under the ANC government.
While the ANC publicly claims to be acting on behalf of the poor, its political representatives at all levels of government are involved in corrupt and secretive privatisation deals that bring personal enrichment for themselves at the expense of the poor.
How can South Africa's workers and poor take the ANC's rhetoric ("people-driven development") and campaigns seriously when it is clear, time and again, that it is ANC politicians who are orchestrating the attacks on the poor through their privatisation program?
The total arrogance and indifference to the plight of the KwaMasiza residents shown by Vicva and by the local ANC-dominated council provides further evidence why privatisation of basic services must be stopped in its tracks.
With their courageous action, the residents of KwaMasiza and the APF have said enough is enough! Opportunist and cowardly politicians, fronted by the police and the notorious Red Ants, are not going to stop poor people from claiming, and enjoying, their legitimate rights to the most basic of services.
Visit the APF web site at <http://www.apf.org.za> for news of the latest developments.
From Green Left Weekly, September 25, 2002.
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