Thirty years after democracy, fed-up Northern Cape residents thirst for more

People walk past a mural featuring the ANC logo outside De Aar in the Northern Cape on the morning of 10 April 2024.

“We are jobless,” said 29-year-old Siyamthanda Gwegwe, standing on the dusty main drag in De Aar, holding his baby. There, an ANC official welcomed us into his office for a chat. He needed to remain anonymous because he wasn’t cleared to talk to the media, he said, and authorities are strict about such things as elections approach.

Emthanjeni is the municipality with the highest underspending in South Africa, and according to Auditor-General reports it has been in a concerning financial position for at least the last five years.Somewhat counter-intuitively, given the municipality’s documented underspending habits, Molaole pointed to inadequate funding for local municipalities as complicating service delivery. Then there was the ageing De Aar infrastructure: “The water pipes date back to 1943”.

“It may look benign, but this is a pretty scary result for the ANC in the context of the NC provincial election coming up,” analyst Dawie ScholtzAlmost five hours’ drive north of De Aar, in another corner of this giant province, a young politician called Shepherd Mines was leading a group of campaign volunteers in a prayer.

As we followed him door-to-door around a dusty township, a 62-year-old called Katrina testified to his local reputation.“Ons was almal hier ANC. Maar die ANC het ons opgemorsEarlier, seated in his lounge, Mines had told us what brought him to this point. He is currently a proportional representation councillor for this area, and previously worked with a local organisation called the Gamagara Community Forum.

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