The poor people of eThekwini have been disregarded yet again. In January the city played host to another of the world’s bourgeois sports – A1 motor racing.
According to local press reports metro officials were quick to pump in about R90 million to accommodate amongst others the conversion of some beachfront streets into a temporary racetrack.
Together with the media some of the city’s top brass bureaucrats wasted no time in canvassing support for the event, claiming that the sport would boost local tourism and generate millions in revenue. As for the beneficiaries, the rich hoteliers and their associates stood to “rake in millions” as one newspaper boldly advertised after the race.
But there is a sharp irony to this tale: barely a few months before the much publicised event, eThekwini’s poor took to the streets, pleading with the city bureaucrats to provide proper service delivery – water, sanitation and decent housing. The city responded by denying them permission to hold a march, and when the residents of a nearby informal settlement took to the streets to vent their anger, the police moved in and bashed the protesting crowds with batons, teargas and rubber bullets, just like the bad old days of apartheid.
After smashing up the protest, the bureaucrats spoke from the safety of their offices – somewhere in the canelands the poor have been promised houses as part of a longer term development project subject to the availability of funds. As if nothing has happened the “Monaco of Africa” bureaucrats are at it again – canvassing the poor to vote for them in the March local government elections.
As the city braces itself for more A1 events, it is likely that issues of social development will be pushed further down the ladder making way for vroom! vroom! machines, empowered celebrities and powerful business!