Nowhere are the stark differences among South Africans more evident than in Soweto, the iconic township that lies at the heart of our troubled and violent history. It’s there that the New York times goes to plumb the realities of life in South Africa today, probably surprising its’ influential readership with how much things have changed for some – and gone backwards for others. It’s a new non-racial Gini coefficient where a better life for all remains a distant dream for far too many citizens. – Chris Bateman
By Thulasizwe Sithole
The once-popular narrative that South Africa and its appalling Gini coefficient is displayed along racial lines is being slowly challenged as the world witnesses the emergence of our Black middle and upper classes.
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Soweto is arguably the best example of this phenomenon, rich in examples of how divergent the world-views are of those residents left behind and those now living in a luxury unthinkable 25 years ago. Where apartheid once united black people regardless of income, today wealth divides them, with stark illustrations in a recent feature run by the New York Times. The cynical and disillusioned views of Klipspruit resident whose shack once had a view but is now blocked by sea of backyard structures, criss-crossed by pirate electricity lines with unpaved roads, stands in stark contrast to those of a mansion-dwelling banker in Vilakazi street where parked Porsches are considered unremarkable. Anger and hardship, driven by growing unemployment among the youth, drive xenophobia with looters ransacking foreign-owned shops in Soweto this August with 12 people dead nation-wide since. The New York Times article juxtaposes this with other symbols of burgeoning wealth among a relatively small elite. Soweto has an annual wine festival, one of Africa’s largest malls and a microbrewery so successful it was recently bought by Heineken. The striking architecture of the Soweto Theatre has replaced the crumbling apartheid-era stadium nearby as an emblem of Sowetan culture. Among recent plays was one about an interracial romance, another about homophobia, and a musical about Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the gospel choir. Annual attendance has more than doubled over the past three years, to 50,000.
The weave of electricity wires above the shack-lands of Klipspruit bear testimony to a deep-seated debate, sparked regularly by deliberate black-outs by city authorities of areas refusing to pay for electricity use. It’s a throwback to the service boycotts of apartheid days when residents refused point-blank to pay for anything provided by an illegitimate government. Old habits die hard – democratically-elected authorities across the country are owed billions and the country’s power utility, Eskom, is in dire financial straits, driven by this and nepotism/ corruption among the political elite.Â
Soweto exploded onto the world stage in June 1976 when a student uprising was brutally suppressed, with 23 children shot dead by police on its’ first day. Today, a museum and memorial mark the spot. Survivor, Mr Seth Mazibuko, considered a local hero for being one of the scores of children jailed, says the economic dividends of liberation are being unequally shared. His quote is a classic; “The tree of liberation we watered with our blood – we’re not enjoying its fruit,” the former school principal opines.
As if to rub it in, he adds; “We’re not even enjoying the shade of that tree. But the children of those comrades that we were with, and who are now in Parliament – they are enjoying the fruit and the shade.”
