HAMMANSKRAAL, South Africa — On days when a municipal truck arrives in Hammanskraal to deliver drinking water, a queue of South Africans begins to form early in the morning to fill their buckets.
This is not a distant rural community, but a municipality on the outskirts of the administrative capital of Africa’s most advanced economy. It is just 30 miles from government buildings in nearby Pretoria.
Hammanskraal’s problems – lack of drinking water, shortage of adequate housing and high unemployment – are a snapshot of the problems affecting millions of people and generating a sense of discontent in South Africa that could force its biggest political change in 30 years in next week’s national elections. .
The African National Congress, once led by Nelson Mandela, has been in power since the end of the white minority apartheid system in 1994. But poverty, poor government services in many places and a national unemployment rate of over of 32% that all mainly affect the country’s black majority and are considered fundamental to the loss of support of the ruling party.
Recent polls show support for the ruling African National Congress below 50% (and as low as 40%), suggesting it may be in danger of losing its parliamentary majority for the first time when the country votes on Wednesday.
“I’ve been voting for 30 years, but I don’t see the difference,” said Linda Mampuru, who lives in the Hammanskraal neighborhood of Bridgeview. “When I vote this time, I want to see my children’s lives improve. My life has passed because I already “I’m older. Who will hire me? I want to see a difference for my children.”
Mampuru has begun illegally connecting his water supply to a nearby municipal pipe that feeds the neighborhood’s few community taps so he can at least wash his clothes. However, he does not rely on the supply for drinking or cooking.
Hammanskraal also represents the complicated political landscape that is emerging in South Africa. While many expect the ANC to fall below 50% of the vote amid frustrations, the main opposition, the Democratic Alliance, is not seen as gaining significantly from that.
Instead, South African voters are turning to a host of different parties, many of them new, for answers.
As the people of Hammanskraal trudge to the water tank to get their share, the road is filled with election posters. Last year, a cholera outbreak killed more than 30 people after the waterborne disease contaminated the area’s supply.
“Water has been a big problem. You can see the tap in my garden, there is no water coming out,” said Tshepo Golele after filling his bucket from the community tank. He said water is also brought by trucks, but sometimes “it delivers dirty water, we’re not even sure where “They get this water.”
The problems in Hammanskraal, where the Democratic Alliance is currently in charge, have been highly publicized in South Africa and have been for years.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile received a lukewarm welcome when he visited Hammanskraal this week to campaign for the ANC.
“We need another 30 years to lead this country to a better life. We have worked hard over the past few years, but we need more, but we can only get it through your votes,” he said, according to local media reports.
Some residents mocked his comments, complaining that politicians often appear when elections approach, but their problems are usually ignored in the middle.
The ANC had some success in changing South Africa in the years after the end of apartheid, which had oppressed the black majority through a system of racist laws for almost half a century. In the first decade under the ANC, South Africa saw improvements in the living standards of millions of people.
But that has largely stagnated and the World Bank now estimates that more than half of South Africa’s population of 62 million lives below the poverty line. Hammanskraal reflects a prevailing national sentiment of people who are not willing to wait any longer.
Kaizer Letswalo said he will vote for a new party.
“We have been voting for these different parties (the ANC and the DA), but we still live like this, we drink unsafe water that makes us sick, we can’t even flush the toilets, we have to dig holes. “You’ve seen how bad the roads are,” he said.
“I’m voting for a newborn party,” he added. “I think they can help people who suffer like us.”
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