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| The Uganda Transit Camp, Isipingo, Durban |
Just two
decades after the dawn of democracy, an old horror is revisiting the
new South Africa. Transit camps are back, and they are back with a
vengeance, writes JARED SACKS, Daily Maverick
Close to
midnight and you can still hear babies wailing, couples quarrelling
and house music blaring through the razor-thin zinc sheets that the
eThekwini Municipality calls “walls” in Uganda Transit Camp near
Isipingo, Durban. Getting a decent night’s sleep is a struggle in
and of itself. And yet, that’s only the beginning.
To cook, you
need to navigate a sink-less kitchen and take a chance on your
paraffin stove, which could blow at any moment. When water runs out,
you have to stand in line to get more and then carry it 200m uphill
to your home. If you are lucky enough to have electricity, bathing in
a bucket requires you to first heat your water in a kettle and then
navigate your body with a washcloth without splashing all over the
floor. Privacy is virtually impossible as there are no walls inside
the shack.
All this
means you have to wake up extra early to get to work on time;
everything takes longer to do when you are living in a
government-built shack. Even an act as simple as going to the toilet
can result in dire consequences: an old lady who was navigating back
from the bush last year died when she fell off a cliff caused by
erosion next to her shack.
There
was a time when transit camps were considered part of the horrors of
Apartheid. Now, two decades into the new South Africa, they’re back
with a vengeance. EThekwini Municipality says it has moved about
11,000 families into transit camps. The City of Cape Town has
built Blikkiesdorp to
house families it evicts from all over the city; with over 10,000
residents, it is the largest relocation area in the country.
Technocrats like them, because a shack in a transit camp counts
statistically as a “housing opportunity”. In reality, they
destroy the social fabric of communities, thereby making it difficult
to organise for better services.
Still, few
people who read this will actually know what it’s like to live in
such conditions; right on top of others who are also struggling under
the same circumstances. The tremendous stress of living in a place
like Uganda Transit Camp can make any ordinarily laudable person
react to life’s challenges in objectionable ways.
On 9 August
2012, a large section of the community of Uganda – people living in
a combination of new RDP houses, self-built shacks and
government-built “temporary” shacks – went to the RDP house of
Jabulani Xolo and burned it to the ground. Why would the residents,
who used to count Jabulani as their Task Team leader in Uganda, take
such drastic action?
I went to
Uganda to investigate charges of corruption and attempted murder and
found a microcosm of the brutal and corrupt underside of
“development” in South Africa. Uganda could, literally, be any
poor community, anywhere in country.
To understand
the current political struggles in Uganda, we must first understand
its history. According to one of the oldest community members, John
Mbuyisa, the name Uganda came from ANC comrades who sought to honour
the country for its support during the anti-apartheid struggle. The
land was first occupied during the 1980s and soon became an Inkatha
stronghold under the direction of a “cruel dictator” named Ntini.
However, residents responded by joining the ANC, chasing Ntini to the
nearby T Section, Umlazi and renaming the settlement Uganda.
Between 1990
and 1994 the area was engulfed in the political violence that tore
through the province from the late 1980s, leaving countless corpses
on both sides. As an ANC stronghold, Uganda became a dangerous place
to live while it was constantly being raided by Ntini and other
Inkatha fighters, now living in nearby T-Section. The area became a
key site of conflict in the civil war that raged across the province,
with the likes of ANC strongman Bheki Cele coming to defend the
community.
Fast-forward
to the present: Uganda, a community never shy to stand up and defend
their dignity, is once again in the throes of struggle. This time,
however, residents seem to be rebelling against leaders within their
own political party.
In 2009, the
provincial government initiated an RDP housing project in the area.
Under the leadership of Jabulani Xolo – an apparently nefarious
character who had spent time in jail for various offences – the
Uganda Task Team was put in charge of representing the community in
negotiations regarding the project. It turns out that the
proportional representation (PR) councillor at the time, Sipho
Khuzwayo, used the task team to convince residents to willingly move
into a cramped transit camp in order to make way for the housing
project. Residents, like Nicholas Ngcongo and Zweli Nomdidi,
willingly relocated to the camp based on the promise that they would
soon move into brand new RDP homes. That was not unusual: across
South Africa, shack dwellers have often been put in these “temporary”
places with no idea of when, if ever, they may actually access the
promised houses.
Then came the
election in 2010 of Ward 89 councillor Lihle Khuzwayo, a friend of
Jabulani Xolo (and no relation of the PR councillor). This was a key
election for the ANC which displaced the IFP from the ward, which
also includes T Section and parts of Umlazi. At the same time as the
election, many residents began moving into the newly-built homes. But
others, still stuck in the transit camp, began complaining that many
people who were not on the beneficiary list, and who were newcomers
or people from outside Uganda, were also receiving houses. Then all
the members of the task team moved out of the transit camp and into
new homes, leaving behind hundreds of angry households.
A young man
named Mbongeni, who stays in his father’s RDP home, agrees with
those left behind in the transit camp. Sitting in the “Phase 1”
home (the only phase where the city has actually installed
electricity and water), Mbongeni told the Daily Maverick that “the
problem here at Uganda is that old citizens had first priority in
getting the houses” but the “new citizens got the houses first”.
He said that he is not sure who is selling off the government houses,
but he knows first-hand that there is corruption going on. He also
has plenty of complaints about the RDP houses, complaints echoed by
other “beneficiaries”: leaking toilets, rain seeping through the
brick walls and roof tiles blowing away with the wind.
Lindiwe
Dungela and Mamakhosazana Hlongwani, two elderly gogos who have been
living in Uganda since the mid 1980s, also received a Phase 1 home in
2010. They allege that the old task team lead by Jabulani Xolo has
been selling homes to people they don’t even recognise as Uganda
residents. They claim that quite often one family will get allocated
two, three or even four RDP homes, all for themselves. Like Mbongeni,
Lindiwe and Mamakhosazana also complain about leaking roofs and the
overall quality of their home. As one can see from Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma's report
on ANC election irregularities, there are similar stories in places
such as kwaDengezi that show the close relationship between local
party clientelism, violence and housing corruption.
It was only
in June 2012 that fed-up residents of Uganda began to toyi-toyi.
According to a former committee member who I will call Nomkhita, and
who joined the task team in April 2012, there was a split in the
committee when a beneficiary named Busisa Dlamini was sidelined and
her house allegedly sold to Tholakele Lembede for R10,000. When news
of the sale went public, it was the last straw for residents. Along
with others, Nomkhita resigned from the committee in disgust.
In July,
residents again protested. It is alleged that two former task team
members, Jabulani Xolo and Senzo Mbambo, drove up to the protesters
and attempted to open fire on them with an R4 assault rifle. Again,
this is not an unusual occurrence in Durban. When the rifle jammed,
residents confiscated it and turned it in at the local police station
where a case of attempted murder was opened (case # 990-07-2012).
Police spokesperson Vincent Mdunge, however, has reduced the charge
to “pointing of a firearm”. Though Senzo was arrested, he was
soon released on bail and the police, as often seems to happen in
cases of politically connected individuals, then “misplaced” the
rifle. According to Mdunge, the case has now been withdrawn.
To add to the
drama, Nomkhita alleged that Jabulani Xolo also tried to burn down
the house of another former task team member, Nobongile, that same
month.
Things got
worse in August. Nomdidi Zweli, who was elected chairperson of the
new area committee in July, led an investigation into the allocation
of housing in Uganda and implicated the old task team in selling 22
RDP houses. On 8 August, Zweli was arrested after being accused by
Jabulani Xolo of shooting him in the foot. After three days in jail,
the case against Zweli was dropped and another community member was
charged instead.
However,
on 9 August, while Zweli was imprisoned, a group of community members
reacted in anger and burned Jabulani Xolo’s home to the ground. A
week later, on 17 August, it was, Zweli alleges, Xolo’s turn for
revenge. Zweli told the Daily Maverick, Xolo
arrived with three of his friends and shot up Zweli’s home in the
transit camp. They also allegedly shot a young community member in
front of her home. She has fled the area and is now living in another
community. The woman, who requested anonymity for fear of
retribution, told the Daily Maverick that
she was shot in the arm and chin while trying to make a call on her
cellphone. She lost almost all her teeth and has had to have
reconstructive surgery.
Though Xolo
and his friends were arrested for the attack (Case #661-08-2012),
they appeared in court and were released on bail. Zweli claims that
the Umlazi police are colluding to keep Xolo out of jail; apparently
he still visits the transit camp from time to time to intimidate
committee members.
In November
2012 residents of Uganda Transit Camp and the adjacent shack
settlement joined the shack dweller’s movement Abahlali
baseMjondolo (AbM). A press release by the movement states that:
“This community was promised verbally that both those who still
live in shacks and those who were relocated to transit camps were
going to benefit in this housing project. However as the homes are
finished people from outside the area are being put into these houses
and the local residents remain in the transit camps. Once again there
is no consultation or discussion and there is no allocation policy
that is transparent”.
It seems the
residents that did not join the movement (mostly those already
allocated RDP homes) agree that something is very rotten in Uganda.
When
the Daily Maverick spoke to councillor Lihle Khuzwayo, he indicated
that he was busy investigating the charges of corruption in the
housing allocation process. Yet when asked about the case of Jabulani
Xolo, Khuzwayo refused to comment, saying he “did not know
anything” because it had nothing to do with him. This is more than
a little odd given that in 2011 he plead
guilty to
taking an unlicensed firearm into a meeting on corruption held in the
Durban City Hall. He was fined R2,000 for possession of the firearm
which, he told the court, he had received from none other than his
close friend Jabulani Xolo.
The case
against Xolo remains ongoing, with an appearance in court last week.
The Public Protector is also investigating the alleged housing
corruption after Abahlali baseMjondolo laid a detailed complaint with
her office last year. Still, it looks like it will be a long time
before anything is resolved.
Uganda is not
unique. This story is typical of the way services, homes and politics
are “delivered” to the poor in this country. Abahlali
baseMjondolo has told the Daily Maverick that it has dealt with
similar situations in communities across KwaZulu-Natal. And while
there may be a particularly violent dynamic in this province, it
seems that across the country “service delivery” is an
increasingly violent process when it is entangled with the local
structures of political parties.
In Sweet
Home Farm,
in Cape Town, a councillor also stands accused of supporting local
thugs who exercise control over the development process.
In Makause in
Gauteng and Marikana in
the North West, the police join corrupt politically-connected leaders
in attacking community activists with impunity. All over the country
poor people are being undermined by local party structures, and their
allies, who are seeking to profit from development.
All over the
country people are standing up in rebellion against their oppression.
Something will have to change.
The rise and
fall of Shauwn and S’bu Mpisane, Durban’s Teflon Couple
The news
on Wednesday morning that the Asset Forfeiture Unit was stripping the
Mpisane mansion in La Lucia of its fleet of luxury cars came as a
huge relief to a number of investigative journalists, who have
regularly featured the infamous couple, Shauwn and S’bu, in
blistering exposés over the past decade – to no effect. This time,
however, it appears the couple finally have their backs to the wall.
By NIKI MOORE, The Daily Maverick
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| S'bu & Shaun Mpisane's Garage, Umhlanga Rocks, Durban |
In fact, the
only mystery about the scandal-ridden two is why it has taken so long
to bring them to justice, and why ANC-controlled government
departments have so diligently protected them from investigation
while awarding them massive government tenders at the same time.
It was in May
2008 that the Durban-based Mercury newspaper ran a front-page story
about the Metro police officer who managed on his R15,000-a-month
salary to drive his Lamborghini to work every day from his R17
million Durban North mansion.
An
investigation by eThekwini Municipality and the Metro police not only
cleared the Mpisane couple of any dubious dealings, but hailed S’bu
Mpisane as a “model policeman” who was good at business and
therefore served as a role model to other policemen. The
investigative magazine Noseweek reported that the city manager at the
time, Michael Sutcliffe, had said that any further questions about
S’bu Mpisane would be deemed racist and ignored.
Meanwhile,
Wiseman Mchunu, spokesman for the Metro Police Members Forum, also
held his wealthy colleague up as a role model for other policemen.
“Mpisane is one person showing police the way towards financial
independence, which is so important because it steers them away from
bribery and corruption,” he told newspapers two years ago. And S’bu
Mpisane declared that he held onto his lowly job despite his fabulous
business wealth because he enjoyed serving his community.
To its
credit, the Mercury kept up its scrutiny of the Mpisane ménage,
running regular stories about the multi-million rand tenders awarded
to Shauwn, the sole director of Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and
Transport. In December 2009 the newspaper revealed that an RDP
housing project had been halted in Umlazi, apparently as a result of
non-payment by eThekwini Municipality. The newspaper established,
however, that the council had paid a total of R219 million to the
company during the year, and that the last payment – of R4,785,720
– had been made on 14 December 2009, two weeks before the
Mpisanes threw a New Year’s Eve party for their political
connections. The party featured golden thrones for the couple, the
unveiling of their new Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, valued at R10
million, and unlimited whisky and champagne.
A week before
the party, Mercury editor Philani Makhanya laid a complaint of
intimidation against S’bu Mpisane, who had allegedly threatened him
over his newspaper’s investigations.
Just days
after the record-breaking party, though, 1,300 workers at the housing
site in Umlazi were told to go home because the company could not pay
them. Shauwn Mpisane is reported to have told the concerned local
councillor, Sthenjwa Nyawose, that her company had not received
payment from the municipality since October. The Mercury subsequently
established that eThekwini had, in fact, paid more than R50 million
in November and December, and city manager Sutcliffe told the
newspaper that the project – to build 4,500 housing units in Umlazi
– had been completed. However, Nyawose said thousands of
houses were still unfinished.
Despite a
price tag of about R70,000 a house, problems of quality surfaced only
a few months later. The Mercury visited the development and found
houses unplastered and unpainted, without toilets, taps, baths or
showers. Roofs were leaking and walls were starting to crumble. The
newspaper directed a number of queries to the provincial department
of human settlement, but the Mercury’s questions (specifically
concerning the criteria used to award the tender to Zikhulise) were
ignored.
The newspaper
also highlighted the discrepancies between the official version of
events – that the payments had only been made once the houses were
complete and were inspected by a “professional” – and the
reality on the ground.
Shauwn
Mpisane promised to talk to the newspaper to clarify the matter, but
then announced she was about to embark on a three-day slimming
programme and would be unavailable. The editor of the paper was
subsequently startled to receive a telephone call from her PR man,
Dominic Ntsele, asking to know what the motives of the newspaper were
for talking to Shauwn Mpisane. The newspaper reported on 21 January
2010 that Ntsele claimed to be acting on behalf of “concerned loved
ones” of the Mpisanes, but refused to reveal names.
In June 2011
Shauwn Mpisane was convicted of fraud in the Durban Regional Court
and disqualified from running a business. Further charges followed,
including fraud and tax evasion. At the same time, a forensic report
compiled by auditors Ngubane and Company recommended that tenders
awarded to Zikhulise be investigated as tender procedures had been
circumvented and irregular payments had been made.
Unbelievably,
eThekwini Municipality continued to award tenders to Zikhulise and
allegedly influenced the awarding of a tender for a R170-million
low-cost housing project in Stanger during July 2012. And the
Mpisanes continued to throw lavish parties for their friends,
including formerly-disgraced police chief, and now the ANC NEC
member, Bheki Cele and Khulubuse Zuma. The municipality refused to
release the Ngubane report, and also kept under wraps the subsequent
Manase report, which controversially alleges that members of the
city’s senior management team were complicit in multiple scams.
By October
2012 the noise from the press could no longer be ignored. The
Mpisanes had been castigated by the National Home Builders
Registration Council for building “shoddy homes”. And Shauwn
Mpisane was now a convicted fraudster; all of her tenders were under
investigation and the houses her company had built were being
demolished as “unsafe”. Yet the municipality continued to defend
her, and she defended herself by claiming that all accusations were
motivated by professional jealousy because she consistently delivered
better quality houses at lower cost and refused to become part of
construction cartels.
The whole
house of cards collapsed, though, last Wednesday morning, when the
Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) swooped on the house in La Lucia,
attaching cars and assets to offset a debt of R140 million. They
alleged that S’bu Mpisane misrepresented his construction company
to the Construction Industry Development Board by submitting
fraudulent gradings in order to secure larger government contracts.
The case itself is not related to Shauwn Mpisane’s tax evasion and
fraud charges.
But the
question has to be asked: Why were the Mpisanes protected for so
long? Why did eThekwini Municipality, along with the provincial
housing department, ignore questions and obfuscate issues? The
answer, perhaps, provides the real story.
Flora Mabongi
“Shauwn” Mpisane is the daughter of eThekwini ANC councillor
Dumazile Flora Mkhize, who started the Zikhulise Cleaning,
Maintenance and Transport company while still a councillor in 1997.
Her other relative is not so salubrious: she was the sister of S’bu
Mkhize, an allegedly infamous violent armed robber and pioneer
cash-in-transit heist operative who died in a shootout with police in
the 1990s.
Zikhulise
received its first R10 million tender to build 277 houses in
Lamontville in 2004. Some of the houses were later demolished as
unsafe. By 2008 the company had been awarded housing contracts worth
R100 million. Shauwn Mpisane became the sole director after her
mother’s death, and by 2012 the company had been awarded housing
contracts worth R500 million. Many of these were declared illegal as
they had been irregularly awarded.
S’bu
Mpisane, on the other hand, has an even more interesting history. A
report in The Times detailed how, in 1998, he became a material
witness in a murder investigation and then mysteriously disappeared.
At
the time Mpisane was a constable with the eThekwini Metro Police Dog
Unit. A murder charge had
been brought against a notorious taxi boss, Mandla Gcaba and his
brother. During the case, it is alleged that a hit squad was
ordered to assassinate the judge, the prosecutor and several
witnesses. According to a confidential police source, the gang parked
outside the Durban Regional Court and crossed the road carrying AK47
assault rifles. An alert police officer, Sergeant Craig van Zyl,
tried to intervene and was shot dead. Two other people died and three
were wounded in the subsequent shootout. It is alleged that S’bu
Mpisane used his own BMW M5 as the getaway car for the team of hit
men. When his car was indentified from footage recorded by police
surveillance cameras, it is alleged he offered to turn state witness,
but just before the trial he mysteriously disappeared. As he had been
the only material witness left alive, the case collapsed and the
Gcaba brothers were acquitted.
It was at the
time believed that S’bu Mpisane had been murdered to prevent his
testimony, but a year later he re-appeared, claiming he had been
kidnapped and held prisoner for a year on a mysterious island off the
coast of Africa. No further questions were asked: he was welcomed
back to his former job, promoted to sergeant, and began his life of
wealth.
There are
still questions to be asked about whether the Mpisanes have links to
organised crime: an alleged cash-in-transit bandit relative;
providing the wheels in an organised hit; the incredibly lame story
of a mysterious kidnapping in order to put the kibosh on a trial. For
a decade the Mpisanes have been the Teflon Couple: no-one could make
anything stick.
It is
believed that the Manase investigation into eThekwini Municipality,
which is currently a closely-guarded secret, might shed some light on
this specific mystery, but until it is revealed we can only
speculate. However, it appears that the changing of the guard at
eThekwini Municipality may have stripped the Mpisanes of their
political protection, or perhaps their transgressions just became
just too hard to ignore.
