Touws River is a town looking to reinvent itself – specifically, its place in the local economy. It suffered a major blow with the closure of the railway line that runs through it in the 1990s, from which it has never quite recovered. In recent years, the declining South African economy and the unexpected crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic have taken their toll on the area.
“The school is a very ugly face of the town… This place was a beautiful place… and it could serve the community so well. I mean, we can develop it into a skills development place for adult training. There can be medical wards… There’s so many possibilities and opportunities,” said Pastor Deon de Koker of the local Apostolic Faith Mission Church.Non-governmental organisations play an important role in Touws River, supporting services such as soup kitchens and the local old age home.
While De Koker does plan to vote, he said he was “very cautious” of politicians because of their tendency to use electioneering tactics in the lead-up to elections. However, “if any political party came to me now and said, ‘We are willing to give the old age home some money’, by all means, I will accept it. It doesn’t matter who you are, I will take it.
“Frankly, I’m not interested in the current political situation in this country because I do not foresee any real changes after these elections,” Baker said. “The fact that the government cut budgets prior to the elections – and I’m talking about social development, I’m talking about all departments – means it negatively affects everybody in the country.
“After I was elected, on 6 December 2021, I received a letter from the National Department of Water and Sanitation that they’re going to give Touws River the Municipal Infrastructure Grant to expand their sewerage. Then I realised that since the people had voted ANC, the national government immediately released the funds to that ward. And that’s how politics is,” he said, adding that he thought it would have been more difficult to access national resources as a DA-led ward.
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