EXPECTATIONS VS REALITIES OF LIFE: SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNITIES
“I was torn between holding on to what you promised and accepting the reality of you not being able to deliver”, this is a quote by R.H Sin, who is of course a poet from the USA, but this quote for me, made me think about the realities of south African communities, vs how the communities are expectations. This blog will be discussing my views on the expectations and promises that the south African communities are receiving compared to the actual reality of what is going on especially in the poor sections of the country mainly Durban area in Kwa-Zulu Natal province.
Placed in one of the poor communities around Durban KZN for by fieldwork block, I have realized that the theory of how the communities are expected to be thriving, the promises that were made to the communities post-apartheid to currently 21 years after apartheid, not many has been carried out as promised or expected. The poor reality of life.
South African communities have expected a turnaround in their lives and how the democracy will be giving them hope to a better life, but as I went into one of the communities, all those things that were promised, expectations and hopes that the elaboration of democratic institutions would put into action to “progressively alleviate poverty and inequality” are not even manifesting in these communities. The communities are an example of the failures of the current government and its promises post-apartheid and continuously.
The community members in that area do not have proper jobs that will help them get out of the slums, wealth enough to elevate their housing, proper healthcare for all their needs, better housing such as the promise RDPs, and services to the people such as municipality collecting rubbish or toilets and water system in their houses. But now that all of this is slow in arriving, there is growing disquiet and increased community protests that have sought to challenge the government on the pace of service delivery. Currently there are protests in these communities about the poor delivery of services and the people who have never actually been in those communities to see how they are not in a good state and why they are protesting for what was initially promised to them, would say that it is the lack of education and “lazy” people.
According to Ul Haq, the objective of development is ‘to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives, however, in these communities, the healthy and creative lives are slowly decreasing due to the lost hope and ignorance of the people who have not been in the communities for at least a week to see what they are going through but put in promises to those very same communities.
In the other developed communities where the attention is given to, such as the suburban and the urban areas close to the big cities receive all of these attention and service deliveries and have proper sanitation and clean water, are improving and being elevated day in and out.
While the quest to create a more equal society in South Africa has come up against numerous problems and is now faced with a crisis of expectation, there exists an opportunity to put right past mistakes and accelerate the delivery of basic services if only the people pushing forward these policies could set their foot in the communities.
I do not believe that these communities can be expected to flourish whilst they have limited opportunities, they have limited healthy lives and service delivery. These communities do not have the resources to flourish like the kind of resources that the higher/ richer communities have.
"To him that hath, more shall be given; and from him that hath not, the little that he hath shall be taken away." The rich have become richer, and the poor have become poorer; and the vessel of the State is driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism- Percy Bysshe Shelley
REFERENCES
Gelb, S. (2003) Inequality in South Africa: Nature, causes and responses, The EDGE Institute, Johannesburg, Accessed at: www.tips.org.za/events/forum2004/ Papers/Gelb_Inequality_in_ SouthAfrica.pdf, last viewed on 08/23/2019, pp. 1-21.
https://www.google.co.za/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwig0pvI4ZjkAhXaSBUIHchCDpoQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=%2Furl%3Fsa%3Di%26source%3Dimages%26cd%3D%26ved%3D%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fme.me%252Fi%252Fi-was-torn-between-holding-on-to-what-you-promised-41a10d1e38344275bdd45ef88958052b%26psig%3DAOvVaw2PTY4YxnaMrF9J3VXqysz9%26ust%3D1566641752318677&psig=AOvVaw2PTY4YxnaMrF9J3VXqysz9&ust=1566641752318677
Papers/Gelb_Inequality_in_SouthAfrica.pdf, last viewed on 10 April 2006. United Nations Development Programme (2008) Human Development Report 2007-08, New York: UNDP
Post-Apartheid South Africa And The Crisis Of Expectation – DPRN Four by: Anshu Padayachee & Ashwin Desai
Seekings, J. (2000) Introduction: Urban studies in South Africa after apartheid, International Journal of Urban and Research, 24(4), Blackwell Publishers: Oxford Statistics South Africa (2003) South African Statistics 2002, in S. Gelb (ed.)
