The government has taken the first step towards normalising relations between warring black and white residents of Hartbeestpoort who are divided over access to the lucrative dam.
The water and sanitation department and the North West provincial government have set up work streams comprised of representatives of various community groups that includes business, residents and religious formations among others, which have been tasked with coming up with solutions to the racial tension.
Most importantly the Water and Sanitation Department which owns the Hartbeestpoort Dam and the land around it has already taken an unprecedented step of canceling apartheid era 99 year leases and Permission to Occupy (permits) through which white people have occupied lucrative pieces of land near the dam where they had been operating businesses and started getting violent when blacks started setting up entities in the same area.
The white residents have allegedly, as part of a pushback, vandalised and burned establishments belonging to black residents.
The cancellation of the leases will result in everyone ( regardless of race) paying market related prices to lease land in the area.
“The reality is that the dams benefited only as was the case with everything else during apartheid. They got 99 year leases, that’s a long time. Now as government we sought to intervene and disrupt that so we cancelled the leases,” said the Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation David Mahlobo who addressed a multi-stakeholder meeting alongside North West Premier Lazarus Mogosi and the Mayor of Madibeng Local Municipality Douglas Maimane on Saturday.
Mahlobo said he expected the committees to achieve harmony within a short space of time after the government successfully defended its actions in court.
The white residents had approached the courts to challenge the state’s authority to impose market related rent on them some of whom believe themselves to be owners of the land they occupy.
“When we disrupted the apartheid arrangements, there were reactions, some happy and some unhappy because they were to surrender that which never belonged to them. We believe in the rule of law hence when we were challenged we subjected ourselves to the courts and in the courts end they ruled in favour of the state to say redress is the right thing to do and there’s no going back,” said Mahlobo.
The Premier revoked the memory of the first president of democratic South Africa Nelson Mandela to urge the white groupings to participate in the transformation process with open minds than view themselves as victims.
He called out racism and warned residents his administration won’t sit back when there’s racial attacks or resistance to transformation.
“South Africa belongs to all who live in it. The land and anything on it should benefit all who live in it so there’s a need for justice, for redress and for development. That is not negotiable. Mandela used to say something to us, that no one is born racist, that racism is taught. Let us all work on ourselves, let us change our ways,” said Mogotsi.
While some black community groups have raised concerns about what they believe to be an overly accommodating approach by the government towards white residents, local black business welcomed the efforts made by the state.
“We are encouraged by the efforts of the government, the deputy minister in particular has shown determination to resolve this matter. By the way, we don’t have a problem with white people, we just want to do business in peaceful environment without fearing being attacked, said Thabiso Mothibedi who had his business establishment burned down in September, allegedly by a group of white locals.
Mothibedi believes there’s already enough white people who have bought into the idea of inclusivity.
“You know people don’t always speak up but from what we are hearing, many people, including whites, are starting to appreciate what the government is trying to do and although they don’t come out, they agree that there has to be fairness and equality,” he said.