The Missing Millions

By Sande Dotyeni

This is a story about the landlessness and poverty that continue to plague working-class black people in South Africa, and the plan devised by four gentlemen to overcome this. The title suggests a heist, but it should be read against the background of the biggest land grab to have occurred in our country’s history: the Natives Land Act of 1913.

Nearly a century later, in 2018, Themba Boqwana, Thando Wontoti, Buntu Nonkelela and Sande Dotyeni, participated in what media termed “the largest land invasions ever experienced by Buffalo City Municipality”. In that chaos of land invasions, marred by violence and mayhem, they saw an opportunity and established Cove Rock New Development, a project for the missing millions, or the missing middle: those who have been excluded from participating in our country’s wealth. In confronting the issue of landlessness, they advocate a society that allows “a hundred flowers to bloom”. In this book, they confront some of the conundrums that persist in modern-day South Africa, and the impact these have on the country’s missing millions. The question that ultimately arises is whether government should reconsider its approach to the land question by accommodating the views expressed here. In a country that is widely regarded as the most unequal in the world, these four gentlemen offer government and other stakeholders a sustainable economic strategy in remedying persistent wealth disparities between black and white South Africans.

About the Author

Sande Dotyeni (Pen name) is the author of Remember Cape Hermes Hotel – A paradise in Pondoland. This book is a love story between a young boy growing up in apartheid South Africa and what he called a paradise in Pondoland. It is set in Port St. John’s, South Africa, a small seaside town overlooking the playful Indian Ocean. The Missing Millions is Sande’s second publication.

Readers may contact the author via his many platforms on social media.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sande Dotyeni
• Release date: Feb 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005558994

Book preview

THE MISSING

MILLIONS

By Sande Dotyeni

With contributions from: Buntu Nonkelela

Copyright © 2021 Sande Dotyeni

Published by Sande Dotyeni Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Sande Dotyeni using Reach Publishers’ services,

Edited by Francois Rabe for Reach Publishers and Dr Lynda Gilfillan

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Website: www.reachpublishers.org

E-mail: [e-mail]

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

— Mark Twain

Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.

— Jack Ma

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

— Albert Einstein

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Land Problems

2. Seeking the Promised Land

3. Rising to the Challenge

4. First Milestone

5. Taming the Critics

6. Involving Local Government

7. Nehemiah Inspires Us

8. The Role of Government

9. The South Africa We Want

10. Development Costs

11. Aluta Continua

12. Important Partnerships

13. Future Scenarios

Acknowledgements

About the Founders of Cove Rock New Development

Our Story in Pictures

Preface

It is widely acknowledged that the greed and malfeasance prevalent in all spheres of government contribute to the many failed initiatives of government as a whole. Individuals continue to drive their own narrow objectives at the expense of the greater society. At times, it becomes very difficult even to trust certain politicians because we know very well that they are in it only for themselves.

The situation is even worse for those of us in the Eastern Cape: the province has, arguably, the most corrupt government in the whole of South Africa, while at the same time being one of the most underdeveloped provinces in the country. At a Covid-19 briefing in 2020, I heard the honourable premier say, Siqgwaliselwe. This Xhosa word expresses irritation or annoyance at the reality of always experiencing misfortune in one’s life. Usually, the word has undertones of the play of supernatural forces to bring about said misfortunes. The premier was, therefore, suggesting that some of the challenges we experience as a province are not of our doing alone, but that, as a region, we are doomed to bad luck – an assertion I completely oppose.

Some of the challenges we face are, I believe, self-inflicted. All of us have a part to play. Our complacency and inertia in the face of obvious dishonesty, particularly in matters concerning our government, has led us into the situation we currently find ourselves in, where we have a government that is challenged by every aspect of society.

Together with Buntu Nonkelela, Themba Boqwana and Thando Wontoti, it is my hope that, increasingly, honest and sincere members of society will rise up and transform society for the better. It is equally important to state that we believe we need fewer people who continue to reap what they did not sow. There exists among us a group of people who have made it their life’s work to benefit from something they are not entitled to. Such persons should be singled out and exposed for the opportunists they are.

***

Recently, while passing through Idutywa en route to East London during Level 1 of the Covid-19 lockdown, I noticed a discussion taking place: its passion was evident even while driving along the N2. I stopped at the post office, where masses of young people were standing in line for the R350 unemployment grant that government was providing during the pandemic. My attention was drawn to a group of young men, as they stood around a fire that early Monday morning. One young fellow, dressed in blue jeans and a black T-shirt, seemed to command the audience around him. It would have been difficult for any curious person to simply pass by such an energetic discussion in the early hours of that morning. So I stopped my car and walked over to them, catching the discussion at a point when the fellow was expressing some of his frustrations with government.

I mean, are we so insignificant in this country that the best solution is to dump us with the post office? Hey, we all know how inefficient it is!

Phantsi! a voice cried out, and fists rose in the air.

Why didn’t they instruct the banks to take over this role? Instead, they forced us to stand in these lines, exposing our families to the coronavirus.

There were low, angry cries, and he raised his voice: They and their friends sit in their comfortable homes, enjoying the money they have gained through irregular tenders. His voice grew even louder: I say we burn this post office and show them that we are not to be taken for fools. Fist in the air, he shouted, I say we burn it all and show these people who call themselves our leaders that this country they say they are building does nothing to serve or protect us! It does nothing for any of us! It should burn! All of it!

His arm dropped to his side and he fell silent.

The crowd murmured in the cold morning air, but no one moved.

For now, at least, the post office seemed safe.

My mind immediately jumped to that timeless song by Tracy Chapman, Talkin’ Bout a Revolution. These young people had woken at 3 am to go to the post office to wait in line until 8 am in the hope of getting their R350. Some had been coming back to the same post office, on countless occasions, without being helped. As I stood with them, I heard them speak of landlessness. They spoke of their struggles as graduates. They spoke of their parents’ challenges.

If we think about the cries of these young men, we realise