OPINION: Why Beirut is burning, again
Beirut, as the section of Alexandra around Madala Hostel is known, has always been synonymous with violence.
The area has always been a stronghold of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and when fighting between the IFP and the African National Congress (ANC) broke out in the country in the 1980s, in Alexandra, the fighting was concentrated in that area.
Many of the loyal IFP supporters live in the hostels of Madala and KwaNobuhle and the surrounding mass of shacks between 1st and 6th avenues, bound by Vincent Tshabalala Road to the south and Alfred Nzo Street to the north.
During the ANC-IFP wars, many residents in the area were displaced within Alexandra. Many of them never returned to Beirut, even after the peace that came following the first democratic elections in 1994.
Even after the 1994 elections, Beirut continued to be stronghold of the IFP. There was a time when the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP) wanted to demolish Madala Hostel to make way for a new housing settlement for residents, but the project was strongly resisted by the IFP members in the area who saw it as a ploy by the ANC to destabilise the IFP and destroy its stronghold around Madala.
The ARP had proposed that residents of Madala would be given temporary home elsewhere in Alexandra while the demolition took place but residents were not guaranteed a return en masse to the hostel once it had been rebuilt into family units.
This angered the local leaders of the IFP and in fear, Beirut once again fall into conflict. The plan was put on hold and was ultimately shelved. Maybe it will be one of the final projects of the ARP, who knows.
So, Beirut has always remained a stronghold of the IFP in Alexandra and the residents of the area feel the machinations of the 2014 Elections are a continued attempt by the ANC to destroy the stronghold. In these elections, the ANC has won the Ward for the first time in national polls.
In the municipal context, the ward was demarcated in such a way that it included areas of the affluent suburbs such as Balfour Park and Highlands North – making the ward fall under the control of the Democratic Alliance for many years. In the 2011 municipal elections the ANC gained control of the ward, after the ward was adjusted and excluded higher income areas.
This year was the first time the national elections were held in the ward under the new demarcation and the ANC has won it – fuelling anger within the local leadership of the IFP, who feel the ANC had been slowly but surely manipulating the boundaries of the ward in their favour.
The IFP never resisted the new demarcation, as they thought they stood a chance of winning it, without the votes of the affluent areas. They failed to realise the new ANC element that was then lumped in, in order to the block both the DA and the IFP from controlling the area and eventually erode the IFP stranglehold on Beirut.
The IFP has been outmanoeuvred and this is why Beirut is burning once again.
That is our priority as sanco that when ARP get new lease of life they need to accommodate the resident at those hostel around Alex because we can’t a no go area for free politiking and everybody in Alex need to get service delivary and hotsels are symbol of apartheid regime a system that made our people live like animals without their families and in this new despensation we can allow that. Period
So all is not quite as rosey as we’ve been lead to believe. Maybe the elections were not so fair and free after all.