The streets of Grahamstown this week have been similar to a scene from District 9, the 2009 hit film set in
our very land, with mean-looking creatures strutting around rubbish-strewn streets and eating out of garbage cans.
The humans in the film wonder what to do with these aliens, until someone stumbles on the idea of locking them up in a fenced off area.
The streets of Grahamstown this week have been similar to a scene from District 9, the 2009 hit film set in
our very land, with mean-looking creatures strutting around rubbish-strewn streets and eating out of garbage cans.
The humans in the film wonder what to do with these aliens, until someone stumbles on the idea of locking them up in a fenced off area.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) strike was the rubbish dumped right in front of the Public Library on Hill Street.
Samwu invoked its right to withdraw its labour starting Monday 12 April over issues we’ll not go into here.
Then some of its members across the country went a step further and overturned trash cans into the streets, broke bottles on the tarmac, and generally made a nuisance of themselves and of their cause.
This loutish behaviour is nothing new. During a similar strike last year, municipal workers trashed the CBD, torched some old tyres and intimidated city residents.
Exasperated business people (especially on High Street) rolled up their sleeves, cleared the rubbish and drove distended black bags to the dumpsite.
This time, only a few businesses have bothered to clean up, with rate-payers probably fed up with indulging people who have never figured out how to disagree without being disagreeable. For me, it’s the rubbish in front of the Public Library that did it.
I am generally genuinely sympathetic to working class causes. For one thing, working class South Africans have precious few friends or spokespeople.
There is Cosatu at the top of the food chain, but Zwelinzima Vavi’s lieutenants are talking heads more interested in ANC alliance politics than the plight of the workers.
The ANC Youth League, perhaps? Ha! Juju has his hands full with British journalists; his hit song Ayesaba Amagwala (with its "Kill the boer, Kill the farmer" lyrics); supporting Zanu- PF; massaging his Polokwane tenders and enjoying his otherworldly expensive Breitling time-pieces.
Perhaps the South African Communist Party? Just as the original communists never really represented the workers (have you ever read George Orwell’s Animal Farm?), Blade Nzimande and Gwede Mantashe do not represent working class South Africans.
Not when Blade splurged R1.1-million on a BMW 750i. That’s not a typo: R1.1 million! On a car! Using tax-payer rands! So whether they like it or not, working class South Africans (as opposed to professionals, tenderprenuers and business owners), need allies like crazy.
Especially since they will have minimal-to-zero leverage once the World Cup ends on 11 July. That’s why it’s surprising that municipal workers would bite off the nose to spite the face, why they’d throw rotten rubbish in front a public library used by their own children who likely do not attend the wellkitted St Andrews Prep.
It’s surprising that they don’t see anything morally wrong or criminal in their actions. Indeed, one of the more cynical outgrowths of apartheid is the complete disregard for law and order.
We all generally think that every law is immoral and has to be broken. As things stand then, the Samwu strike entered indefinite mode on Tuesday, and Grahamstown residents have since decided to hold onto their rubbish. Many are also holding their tongues.
Often, to speak out against anyone involved in wrongdoing who happens to be black, is to invite charges of racism.
Hear this then: there is nothing racist about reprimanding someone who poops where (s)he is sitting. Municipal workers are welcome to hate me now, but there it is.
Sim believes that even when you win the rat-race, you are still a rat.
