Sexwale: I'm not impressed

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Please spend a month living in a shack and share a room with 12 others.

Human Settlement Minister Tokyo Sexwale never ceases to amaze me.

This week, Sexwale visited Diepsloot and spent a night there on a fact finding mission. The following day, he pronounced on radio that he was due to meet cabinet ministers to give a report.

I am sorry, but this is superficial nonsense.

I was not at Diepsloot when Tokyo pulled this stunt-like performance. But when this thing unfolded, I tried to picture it, to visualise it happening. The more I tried to visualise this, the more characteristics of a Broadway production played in my head.

He obviously, arrived that night with an army of body guards following careful and meticulous intelligence data gathering. The shack was thoroughly scrubbed and secured.

He did whatever else he did and slept, with members of the VIP protection unit watching over the shack all night.

This is sad, very sad.

For all intents and purposes, this was not a fact finding mission, it was merely a symbolic gesture. He can't possibly have been serious when he said he was going to give a report back to cabinet ministers about conditions there.

Firstly, Diepsloot is not a tiny place. Sexwale spent a night in that one shack, and most definitely has no clue what happened that night in other parts of this sprawling ghetto. Besides, what kind of a credible report back would you give to a serious group of people like cabinet ministers after spending only one night at a squatter camp?

For crying-out loud, this is no time for symbolism. If the minister is serious about gaining first-hand experience of squatter life, he should, with the help of experts in his office, design a proper and thorough programme and spend at least a month staying in these conditions.

During this month, he would have to do as Romans do, in other words share a single room with 12 or so other people where applicable. He would have to eat what they eat and do what they do for this period. He must share the real pain, suffering and frustration of these people.

Issues of poverty in this country are deep and often complicated. You cannot find an answer in one night in some corner of Diepsloot.

Issues of poverty evoke painful emotions. They are no theatre performances. My mother was a maid for white middle class households all her life. I was born in a rondavel in rural KZN and spent many years of my youth in abject poverty in Zola Township, south-west of Soweto where I watched my friends knifing each other to death with such frequency that sometimes I wonder how I survived it all.

That's why I will never play games or pull stunts about poverty. It's not funny. In fact it's a sad and dangerous package that is such a threat to national security.

Affluent people, however, spend very little or no time at all thinking about that. They have no clue.

Interestingly enough, Diepsloot is neighbouring such affluent areas as Fourways, Dainfern, Lonehill, Beverley, you name it. But, I can bet you, like an ostrich, inhabitants of these suburbs thrust their heads in the sand and pretend all is honky dory.

Alexandra Township is in walking distance to Sandtonand the JSE. It is in walking distance to Investec's headquarters. Yes, Alexandra Township is in walking distance to Nedcor head office and many other global powerhouses.

In fact, all the wealth is surrounded by poverty from all corners of the nation.

Our country's wealth is like a formidable army totally encircled by the enemy, but entirely oblivious of it. Poverty is the worst enemy. But those in Sandton, Kyalami Estate, Sandhurst, Newlands, Rondebosch, Zimbali, Ballito, Bishop's Court, you name it, think they are safe enough behind their electrified high-wall perimeters.

It's a myth whose days are numbered.

Back to Sexwale.

Minister, please don't play with this.