Struggle veteran castigates bureaucracy
ALEXANDRA - One of South Africa's re known poets and struggle veteran has urged civil society to re-organise and empower itself to withstand delays in service delivery which he attributes to the ineptitude of bureaucracy.
One of South Africa’s best-known poets and struggle veteran’s Dr Mongale Wally Serote, has urged civil society to empower itself to oppose delays in service delivery.
Serote said the same civil society dismantled apartheid and similarly it should be able to ensure the concrete conclusion of the struggle which saw many lose their lives. “Communities waited passively for over a decade after entrusting their hope for change to the civil service,” he said. “They only awoke to a disappointment a couple of years ago through civil protests when it was evident that service delivery could not happen in the absence of them taking to the streets. In the process costly damage was done to public property which in normal situations, they should have protected.”
He added that as a continuation of the struggle, the protests sought to distribute and democratise the gains of struggle victory which communities waged voluntarily in the streets in their quest for change. “The same principle still applies in making democracy work. Communities’ protest should be seen as a desire towards this goal through popular participation and them being able to stop any attempts by bureaucracy to make this fail.”
Serote was speaking exclusively to Alex News at Phutaditjaba Community Centre during the preview of the Dark City Dreams festival. The festival was a fundraising event for the centre through sale of portraits [images] of life in Alexandra. The portraits from renowned photographer Michael Meyersfeld are appended with Serote’s poetic messages of hope, identity and unity in diversity. The images depict energetic township life which Serote said should be creatively linked with initiatives and plans of government to transform and develop their area. “In this way, bureaucrats will find no reason not to support and be accountable to communities in the use of public funds for development.”
Serote added that with their energy and the future in their favour, youths were best placed to continue the struggle spirit. “Without their constant nagging of the officials, transformation policies which are meant to drive change will not be implemented and the struggle for which many lost their lives will have failed,” he concluded.
