A Municipal Road Travelled

By Pieter C Jansen van Vuren

This book spans the political transition from apartheid South Africa to the new South Africa with a democratic Constitution and a Bill of Rights. It represents the author's memoirs for the period 1985 to 2022 and his involvement in local government and its transformation from racially based municipalities under apartheid, to non-racial municipalities.

He shares his personal experience and stories from the various municipalities that he served during this period. In doing so, he tell the story of the transformation journey of local government in South Africa. The author is in a unique position having worked in a Black Municipality (Munsieville) from 1987 to 1992, in a White Municipality from 1992 to 1995 (Margate Borough) and non-racial Municipalities (Margate Transitional Local Council, Greater Margate Municipality and the Hibiscus Coast Municipality) from 1995 to 2003.

He witnessed and participated actively in the negotiations between municipalities and the civic associations in the early 1990's and the later negotiations leading up to the establishment of Transitional Local Councils (TLCs) in 1995. He writes extensively about these negotiations and the various roleplayers involved.

The author concludes the book with two chapters. One that critically look at the state of local government today, why some of the current challenges experienced has its genesis in the legal framework adopted between 1998 and 2004 for the new dispensation for local government and what must be done to get local government back on track. In the last chapter he briefly looks at the outcome of the 2021 local government elections and whether the many governing coalitions that were formed after the elections brought stability to local government.

Herewith an overview of the chapters in the book:

Three introductory chapters -

Chapter 1: Introduction to the book.
Chapter 2: Overview of the history of local government in South Africa.
Chapter 3: The authors upbringing in Apartheid South Africa, his studies, and the start of his career so that you know a bit more about the author.

Five chapters about Munsieville, his experience working in the township and the negotiations with the local civic association following the unbanning of the ANC in 1990.

Chapter 4: Overview of the history of Munsieville - 1889 to 1985.
Chapter 5: Turbulent and uncertain times in Munsieville - 1986.
Chapter 6: A time of unprecedented peace, stability, and progress in Munsieville - 1987 to 1989.
Chapter 7: The local government negotiations in Munsieville - 1990 to 1992.
Chapter 8: Munsieville after I left - post 1992.

Four chapters about his experiences working at municipalities on the KwaZulu-Natal Lower South Coast and the negotiations leading up to the establishment of Transitional Local Councils in 1995.

Chapter 9: Margate Borough and the establishment of the National Local Government Negotiating Forum - 1992 to 1995.
Chapter 10: Local Government Negotiations on the Natal Lower South Coast - 1993 to 1995.
Chapter 11: Establishment of the Margate Transitional Local Council and elections for the Greater Margate Municipality - 1995 to 1999.
Chapter 12: Establishment of the Hibiscus Coast Municipality - 2000 to 2003.

One chapter, chapter 13, on his career after leaving the service of local government - 2003 to 2022 and working at inter alia PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Western Cape Department of Local Government.

Two chapters on the current state of local government and the 2021 local government elections.

Chapter 14: A critical reflection: The state of local government in South Africa (post 2000).
Chapter 15: 2021 Local Government Elections and the dilemma of unstable local government coalitions.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Riaan van Vuren
• Release date: Feb 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215910856

Book preview

Introduction

The announcement by President F.W. de Klerk in Parliament on Friday 2 February 1990, that the ban on the African National Congress (ANC) and other restricted organisations would be lifted and Nelson Mandela released unconditionally, took the world by surprise. When de Klerk finished his speech opening Parliament that historic day, the ANC and 30 other political parties, including the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Pan-African Congress (PAC), had been unbanned unconditionally; the death penalty suspended; the state of emergency lifted; trade unions allowed to function freely; all political prisoners were to be released immediately, and restrictions on political exiles lifted.

Most importantly, de Klerk opened the way for South Africa's first fully democratic election by promising –

a totally new and just constitutional dispensation in which every inhabitant will enjoy equal rights, treatment and opportunity.¹

The subsequent Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) negotiations received so much national and international coverage, that many people are unaware that a parallel negotiating process took place at local level. These negotiations were aimed at transforming local government from race-based institutions to non-racial municipalities.

This book spans the political transition from apartheid South Africa, to the new South Africa with a democratic Constitution and a Bill of Rights and represents my memoirs for the period 1985 to 2022 and my involvement in local government and its transformation to non-racial municipalities.

I will share my personal experience and stories from the various municipalities that I served during this period. In doing so, I will tell the story of the transformation journey of local government.

I am in a unique position having worked in a Black Municipality (Munsieville) from 1987 to 1992, in a White Municipality from 1992 to 1995 (Margate Borough) and non-racial Municipalities (Margate Transitional Local Council, Greater Margate Municipality and the Hibiscus Coast Municipality) from 1995 to 2003. I also witnessed and participated actively in the negotiations between municipalities and the civic associations in the early 1990’s and the later negotiations leading up to the establishment of Transitional Local Councils (TLCs) in 1995.

Books have been written and papers delivered at conferences about the transformation of local government– this is a more personal experience of what happened, and the various role players involved in the transformation process.

In writing the book from memory, I appreciate it is about events that happened as far back as 30 years ago. With events so far back, one also colours in such events based on one’s own background and experience, as alluded to by Parvikko (2003): 

Memory, remembering, is not politically and historically innocent.… historically, memory is profoundly political. One should not claim that politicking with memory is one of the influential ways of doing politics. The politics of memory does not only concern the past as such, by presenting of the past a wanted interpretation, by remembering certain events and dimension of the past (instead of some others) in a certain way [we] want to affect and influence the present time and future.²

In writing I tried to be as honest with myself as possible by describing experiences as best I could remember them, whilst acknowledging that my background and upbringing influences my interpretation of these events.

At the time of writing this book (2021/22), South Africa is a country in trouble. Long gone is the promise of 1994, and reconciliation is not foremost on the national agenda anymore. Rampant corruption is the order of the day, and the ruling ANC faces countless challenges. The country’s fiscus is severely constrained. Incidents of racism and growing poverty and inequality are tearing at the fabric of society.

Most municipalities, except for those in the Western Cape, are dysfunctional and are battling financially. Their audit outcomes continue to diminish, and some argue that the state of local government threatens the country’s entire development agenda.³

The seeds for the current sad situation were planted during the period I served local government from 1987 to 2003 and thereafter. I will provide commentary where relevant in taking you on my local government journey as markers of what might have gone wrong. I will also conclude the book with a chapter analysing the current state of local government and what, in my view and that of a few current and former local government practitioners, should be done to get it back on track.

I would like to dedicate this book to all my local government colleagues who walked the journey with me. Their professionalism and dedication to service did not always receive due recognition. There are far too many to mention by name. However, I do want to single out one group of individuals – my fellow Town Clerks who worked under very trying circumstances in Black local authorities in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Belittled as nothing more than location superintendents by some, loathed as apartheid bureaucrats by others, most did an excellent job in ensuring that their local authorities kept on functioning despite the levels of unrest prevalent at the time and the severe lack of municipal revenue. If I look at the sad state of some municipalities today, I believe we did an excellent job compared to many municipal managers today. Also, my colleagues and I often did our work at risk of our lives and the safety of our families.

Unfortunately, some rotten apples succumbed to the lure of fraud and corruption, especially with the allocation of developed municipal sites. Most of the Town Clerks in the Black local authorities that I worked with were, however, people of integrity and dedicated local government practitioners. I salute them for the work they did in running their municipalities, in providing services amid rent and services boycotts, and in ensuring the peaceful transition to democratic non-racial municipalities.

●      CHAPTER 2      ●

A brief history of local government in South Africa

To provide the context for my experiences in local government against the background of the transformation of the sector during the time, it is necessary to reflect briefly on the history of local government in South Africa.

Early local government – 1652 to 1910

The development of local government in South Africa owes its origins to the influences of the Dutch and the British. They occupied the Cape of Good Hope at various periods in our history.

After Jan van Riebeeck arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, the area known as Cape Town gradually grew from a stopover for ships on the way to the East, to a small hamlet, to a bustling town and eventually into a city. It soon became necessary to appoint magistrates (landdrosts) and councillors (heemraden) to undertake the local government administration of the area, and the villages established outside the Cape peninsula.⁴

The first college of Landdrosts and Heemraden at Stellenbosch comprised the Landdrost acting as a chairperson and four Heemraden.⁵ Colleges of Landdrosts and Heemraden followed in Stellenbosch in 1679, in Drakenstein in 1687, in Swellendam in 1745 and in Graaff-Reinet in 1786.⁶

The 1836 Municipal Ordinance for the Cape Colony laid the foundation for a system of local government, comparable with the present-day elected municipal councils. It provided for a board of commissioners for the various towns elected by property owners.⁷

The said Ordinance formed the basis with minor modifications for the Natal Municipal Ordinance of 1847 and that of the Orange Free State and Transvaal (Zuid-Afrikaanze Republiek) Boer Republics in 1856 and 1877, respectively.

The Union of South Africa–1910 to 1961

By 1910, the four colonies that formed the Union of South Africa developed their own distinctive system of local government building on the foundation laid by the 1836 Municipal Ordinance for the Cape Colony. The South Africa Act of 1909 made the provincial councils of the Cape, Free State, Natal, and Transvaal Provinces responsible for municipal and other local authorities. With this development, these distinctive characteristics were retained and further developed.⁸

White urban local authorities comprised elected councils based on a ward system. Councillors indirectly elected a mayor with mainly ceremonial powers. The multiple committee and management committee systems were the two primary forms of internal organisation. The town clerk was the senior administrative/ executive official of local authorities, heading a corps of permanent officials.⁹  No metropolitan form of government existed before 1995.

There were also different provincial institutions for White rural local government. The only genuinely representative form of rural local government was in the Cape, with an elected Divisional Council system. In the Transvaal, the Board for Development of Peri-Urban Areas, in Natal the Development and Services Board, and the Orange Free State, the Small Areas Control Board, provided rural services. These tended to be appointed forms of government, which were advised by local area committees without executive powers.¹⁰

Local Government under Apartheid – 1948 to 1993

Racial segregation, the influx control of Blacks in urban areas, and disenfranchisement of certain racial groups characterised the history of local government during the apartheid era (1948–1994). Local government in South Africa became the mechanism through which cultural and racial groups were kept separate.

Separate residential areas were created for the different population groups. The apartheid government insisted that urban areas populated by different population groups should be governed and administered separately, even if they were located close together, shared economic activity and municipal services overlapped or were duplicated.

For urban Black people living in what was considered then White South Africa, this took various forms. From advisory boards set up in terms of the Black (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act of 1945 to Urban Bantu Councils in 1961. These Councils failed because of the reluctance of White municipalities to transfer powers to them. Many Black people saw them as collaborators in implementing apartheid and rejected them.¹¹

Urban Bantu Councils were replaced in 1971 by the Bantu Affairs Administration Boards, which were offered the option of becoming urban Bantu Councils. The Cille Report into the 1976 Soweto unrest commented that the Administration Boards were unresponsive to Black demands and heard evidence of the high-handed and racists attitudes of many Board officials.¹²

The decision to establish Community Councils in 1977 was a sign that the arrangement whereby the Bantu Affairs Administration Boards acted as agents of the central government in Black urban areas was not working. The Community Council Act established a tier of elected municipal councils vested with executive power under the authority of the Administration Boards. It marked the beginning of a significant reversal in the pattern of administrative control over the affairs of Black people living in the townships. The State saw community councils with meaningful powers as a channel through which the demands of urban Blacks could be articulated peacefully and defused.¹³

Community facilities in the townships were neglected because Black people were considered temporary visitors to the urban areas. Alongside introducing Community Councils, the government decided that the Black urban areas had to be upgraded. They also introduced home ownership in terms of a 99-year leasehold system in 1978.¹⁴

By 1980, 224 Community Councils were established. The polls were low, with the poll in Soweto only being 5.6%. The United Councils Associations of South Africa (UCASA) was formed in 1978 as a representative body of all Community Councils and the later Black Local Authorities.¹⁵

In response to the establishment of the Community Councils, civic organisations were established in the Black townships to galvanise and steer community resistance to the policies of the former government (see photo below of 1983 advertising a protest meeting in the Vaal Triangle). The South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO) was the most dominant civic organisation.

A close up of a newspaper Description automatically generated

To quell the ever-increasing uprisings and civil resistance in townships, the government introduced Black local authorities. The civics launched rent and services boycotts, ensuring that very little revenue would be forthcoming from townships, rendering the Black Local Authorities municipalities largely financially unsustainable.¹⁶

The Black Local Authorities Act of 1982 facilitated the introduction of Black local authorities for Black communities in urban areas. Responsibility for administering and controlling these local authorities were given to the four provincial administrators that existed at the time in the Cape, Orange Free State, Transvaal, and Natal provinces. However, central government still provided policy directives to the Black local authorities in the form of legislation.¹⁷

Black local authorities were beset with difficulties right from their inception. They lacked political legitimacy among most Black people and fiscal inadequacy problems plagued them since they did not have a proper tax base. Without an adequate tax base, the Black local authorities were often rendering substandard services. Communities largely rejected them through community mobilisation in the mid-1980s.¹⁸

As far as Coloured and Indian people were concerned, the government took no active steps to introduce any local government system until 1962 legislation provided for three phases in the development of such a system:

•      Consultative Committees, which comprised nominated members having advisory powers only and functioning under the close guidance of the White local authority where they were situated, followed by -

•      Management Committees, which were partly elected and partly nominated, and having advisory and certain additional powers delegated to them by the White local authority, and hopefully eventually -

•      Fully fledged municipalities equivalent in status to White local authorities.¹⁹

Over time government created, Management Committees or Local Affairs Committees (in Natal) for most Coloured and Indian communities under the stewardship of the White municipalities. The White municipality employed the staff of these committees.

Only four Indian Local Affairs Committees (Verulam, Isipingo, Marburg and Umzinto North) in the entire country eventually developed into independent local authorities. No Coloured Management Committee developed into an independent local authority.

Council for the Coordination of Local Government Affairs – 1983

In 1983 Parliament adopted the Promotion of Local Government Affairs Act, Act 91 of 1983. The Act established a Council for the Coordination of Local Government Affairs with the purpose of advising government regarding the coordination of those functions of local authorities which were of general interest to all local authorities. It was clear that the government appreciated the need for the better coordination of the municipal functions performed by the various race-based local authorities in place at the time.

Regional Services Councils - 1985

Implementation of the Regional Services Councils Act, 1985 (No. 109 of 1985), changed local government in South Africa. The act aimed to address several issues. These included the uncoordinated planning caused by the fragmentation of racially based local authorities in the same demographic area, the provision of bulk services on a cost-effective regional basis, the need to redistribute funding towards Black local authorities and to facilitate multi-racial decision making at local government level.

The act provided for Black local authorities to take part in Regional Services Councils (RSCs) through the establishment of a regional services council for each region established by the provincial administrator. RSCs were funded through a tax on wages and salaries of all employees in a region.²⁰

The intention to redistribute funding towards Black local authorities was an attempt to defuse township unrest by uplifting the quality of life in these underdeveloped areas.²¹  Anti-apartheid political resistance at community level in South Africa, however, continued unabated and so much so that government had to declare a state of emergency to restore law and order. The intensity of the conflict at local government level and the virtual deadlock that resulted contributed substantially to the demise of apartheid.

Despite representation on the RSCs based on racially separated local authorities, they represented the first fully multi-racial decision-making bodies at local government level. Cameron (1991) argues, and I agree, that the symbolic impact at the time of representatives of all population groups discussing and deciding on issues of common concern should not be underestimated.²²

The post-apartheid transition phase – 1990 onwards

Swilling is of the view that the transformation of South Africa’s local government system occurred in a way that is –

probably unique from an international comparative perspective.²³

This uniqueness lies in the change from authoritarianism to democracy, which took place simultaneously at a national and local level. The national transformation was, however, precipitated by the crisis at local government level – the strategy to make the country ungovernable by rents, services, and consumer boycotts promoted by civic and consumer associations.²⁴

The way out of the impasse of local authorities being deprived of revenue and the social movements being deprived of services was local-level negotiations. After the unbanning of the ANC, hundreds of local-level talks were initiated throughout South Africa in the early 1990s.

Powell highlights that these local-level negotiations began in many instances before the national political negotiations in 1993. He points out that these early local level pacts were important laboratories for experimenting with local transition and that the results influenced the course of local government transition and subsequently policy on local government in the democratic order.²⁵

Swilling contends that the de facto situation of dual local power of White and Black local authorities was unsustainable and consequently, the National Local Government Negotiating Forum (NLGNF) was established in early 1993 to work via the various local forums.²⁶

The NLGNF rapidly negotiated a framework for guiding local government transition and promulgated the Local Government Transition Act 159 (LGTA) in 1993 for this purpose. The act provided for the transformation of the local negotiating forums into statutory forums with prescribed structures and procedures.²⁷

The first task of the local forums set up in terms of the LGTA was to appoint new local government structures for a phased transition to democratic local governance, divided into the following stages:

I.      A pre-interim phase, being the period between the appointment of the new political leadership by the negotiating forums and the first local government elections.

II.      An interim phase, defined as lasting from the time of the elections to the agreement at the national level on a final Constitution, which will incorporate local government into a new three- ‘sphere’ system.

III.      A final phase, the establishment of a new local government system and the election of municipalities based on this system.²⁸

In line with this phased approach, the first round of restructuring followed the proclamation of local authorities with nominated councils, called Transitional Local Councils, or TLCs as they more commonly became known. These councils functioned until the first local government elections of 1 November 1995, followed by elections in KwaZulu-Natal and the Cape metropolitan area on 26 June 1996. This led to the establishment of 842 consolidated municipalities. The third and final round of restructuring took place after the second local government elections that took place on 5 December 2000.²⁹

The historical canvass for this book

The above overview of the history of local government in South Africa provides the canvass against which I will paint the story of my service in local government from 1985 to 2003 and my continued involvement in local government affairs after 2003.

Before taking you along on the road of my local government journey from Munsieville to Port Shepstone to Cape Town, I will reflect on my upbringing in Apartheid South Africa, my studies, and the start of my career so that you know a bit more about me, the youngster who started working at age 24 in a township that was considered the place in South Africa where a race war might erupt in the volatile 1980s.

●      CHAPTER 3      ●

Growing up and working in Apartheid South Africa

(1963-1985)

Born in 1963 in the industrial town of Vanderbijlpark in the Vaal Triangle (in what we now know as the Gauteng Province) I spent my youth growing up in Apartheid South Africa in a working-class family with my grandparents coming from humble farming backgrounds.

My father did his trade as a fitter and turner with Iscor (now ArcelorMittal) and through hard work and dedication worked himself up to become the Superintendent of Mechanical Engineering at the biggest stainless-steel factory in the Southern hemisphere in the Mpumalanga province. My dearest mother had to work throughout her adult life as a dental assistant and later personal assistant to secure a better future for her family.

Through their efforts, we, in my later school years, lived a reasonably comfortable life as a typical White middle-class family. We were living a privileged life compared to millions of others who were struggling daily to make ends meet. My parents secured this through dedicated and hard work.

No doubt living in Apartheid South Africa made my life immensely more comfortable and provided opportunities that were denied to others, or which they could only exercise in their designated homelands. I nevertheless believe that who I am is not defined by apartheid but by my character as an individual. I appreciate the need to work towards improving the lot of others who are less fortunate, and hopefully I did just that throughout my local government career.

Both my parents were ardent supporters of the National Party (NP). Their support for the Nationalist cause - and therefore also the policy of Apartheid - must be judged in the context of the Afrikaner’s struggle for political self-determination and against the background of the interference of the British Empire wherever the Afrikaner tried to find and establish a place of his own. This undue interference culminated in the Second Anglo-Boer War, exacerbated by the inhumane treatment of Afrikaner women, children, and the elderly in the British concentration camps.

I am proud of my Afrikaner heritage and family history. My forefather on my father’s side, Gerrit Janzoon van Vuren (many family members wrongly spell the surname as van Vuuren), settled in the Cape in 1686. He fled the horrors of the religious prosecution of the Protestants by the Catholic Church and the third Anglo-Dutch war of 1672 to 1674 which, together with the constant flooding of the low-lying Dutch countryside, left the southern Netherlands in a state of extreme poverty.

Gerrit Janzoon van Vuren started the cultivation of wine in the Cape on what would later become known as the Bellingham wine estate in Franschhoek. Some of his descendants then settled on the Eastern Cape border, which brought them into direct conflict with the Xhosa inhabitants of the region.

From there, thirty-four Jansen van Vuren families rebelled against what they perceived as the anti-Dutch sentiments of the British administration. They voted with their feet by participating in the Great Trek inland from 1836 onwards, a trek that worldwide still counts as one of the most significant population migrations in history.

One of my direct family members, Stephanus Johannes Jansen van Vuren, died violently at the hands of Dingaan’s impis at uMgungundlovu on 4 February 1838 after having negotiated land on which to settle from the Zulu regent. 

Another five family members took part in the battle of Blood River, at which the Voortrekkers eventually defeated Dingaan's forces under the leadership of Andries Pretorius.³⁰ The Voortrekkers went about setting up their own homeland in 1839 on a portion of what later became known as Natal, with Pietermaritzburg as the capital, only for the British to again deny them their freedom in 1842 by forcefully taking control of the area.

The decision to establish the Zuid-Afrikaanze Republiek (ZAR) over the territory that would later become known as the Transvaal was taken on 9 April 1844 on the farm Derdepoort of a family member, Roelof Jansen van Vuren. Again, British imperialism destroyed this dream of an independent Afrikaner Republic.³¹

To get its hands on the mineral wealth of the ZAR, they promoted conflict leading to the Second Anglo-Boer War in which a hundred and twenty of my family members on my father’s side fought - a war in which twenty-three eventually paid the highest price.

Forty-seven family members were caught during the war and sent to overseas prisoner of war camps as far away as India, Ceylon (current Sri Lanka), Bermuda and St Helena. Seven family members died on the way to or in these camps (see photo below taken at the Anglo-Boer War Museum in Bloemfontein reflecting the names of family members who dies whilst held as prisoners of war).³²

A British firing squad executed one of my family members, Hendrik van Vuren, on 4 September 1901 (see photo below), for joining the Boers as a Cape rebel.

He was 27 years old and a citizen of the British controlled Cape Colony living in the Willlomore district. They considered his actions as treason. The British cruelly denied him a visit by the local Afrikaans minister on the evening before they carried out his sentence.³³

Sixty-seven Jansen van Vuren family members - women, children, and elderly - were amongst the 27 927 people who died in the concentration camps set up by the British to deny the Boer soldiers access to their women and children. Twenty-five were children younger than five years with the youngest casualty being only two months old (Smartryk van Vuren) and six persons older than sixty years with the oldest being eighty-four years old (Petrus Jacobus van Vuren).³⁴ Translated the name Smartryk aptly refers to ‘rich in sorrow’.

It is against this historical background dominated by British imperialism and injustice that the Afrikaner's political worldview, including that of my father and mother, must be judged. Unfortunately, in their fervent wish for political self-determination, they, and most other Afrikaners, did not appreciate that implementing apartheid willingly discriminated against their fellow Black countrymen. Their ardent faith in what they believed was a just cause of Afrikaner freedom and self-determination blinded them for decades to this gross injustice.

Political awakening – 1970s

I attended Primary School in the 1970s, followed by High School from 1977 to 1981. Growing up, I have no direct recollection of the 1976 Soweto riots or the racial tension that existed in South Africa in that fateful year. I was only thirteen years old and was more interested in making the school’s rugby team than in any political developments.

Later in the 1970s, my political consciousness grew because not only did I take an active interest in political issues but after school decided to study political science. The politics of the day was always a point of discussion in our household and broader family, and the fierce political battle between the verligte (enlightened) and verkrampte (conservative) factions of the National Party that was raging after 1977, greatly contributed to my political awakening.

I remember being interested in the outcome of the Information Scandal that rocked the National Party, which I actively followed through reading the Beeld and Vaderland daily newspapers. I delivered these papers by bicycle every morning and afternoon to households in Middelburg to earn pocket money.

I favoured the cause of the verligte faction of the National Party who realised that apartheid was not sustainable and that reforms were not only desirable, but necessary. I was delighted when P.W. Botha of the verligte faction, after the resignation of John Vorster because of the information scandal, narrowly beat Connie Mulder of the verkrampte camp in the vote to become the new Prime Minister of the Republic.

On the platteland town of Middelburg, Mpumalanga (then Southeastern Transvaal) where my parents settled in 1968, the battle between the verligte and verkrampte factions were especially bitter. In every election and by-election, the Herstigde Nasionale Party (HNP), representing a conservative breakaway group of the National Party, won ground and a larger tally of votes based on their crude racism and ardent wish to stop the government’s reform initiatives, limited as it may have been, in its tracks.

As a standard nine (grade 11) school child, I remember attending one of the HNP political rallies in 1980 without the knowledge or approval of my parents. During question time, in my youthful exuberance I challenged the HNP candidate (who had the nickname of Suitcase Stoffberg because of his moving from constituency to constituency in the hope of securing a seat in Parliament) on the long-term sustainability of apartheid.

In his reply he gave me a real tongue lashing, as only a politician can do, to the delight of all his supporters who packed the local town hall to the rafters. My father was not thrilled with my antics, but I am sure in private, he admired my guts and determination.

Studying in the big city – 1982 to 1985

In 1982, after completing matric, I began with studies in Political Science at the then Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), now University of Johannesburg, courtesy of a government bursary. I had to study hard to qualify for the bursary as my parents made it clear from the onset that they would not be able to fund my tertiary studies. The conditions attached to the bursary required that I had to work a certain number of years back in the government's service after completion of my studies.

Our studies in politics exposed me and my fellow students to a wide spectrum of political views. Our lecturers challenged us from both a right and left-wing perspective on the political issues of the day. They encouraged us and nurtured independent and critical political analysis and thought over every day political dogma. These were the heydays of political reform promoted by Prime Minister (later President) P.W. Botha through his adapt or die mantra - this made for some fascinating and heated political debates in the lecture room and on campus.

I supported the National Party at the time, provided they continued steadfastly on a path of political reform. I was of the firm belief that universal franchise must be extended to all South Africans irrespective of race, but that this should take place gradually over time and with the safeguards and checks and balances to prevent the abuse of political power that any majority group would have over minority groupings in South Africa.

On this basis, I worked actively for a yes vote in the 1983 referendum in National Party Member of Parliament’s (MP) Roelf Meyer’s Westdene constituency. I felt that extending the vote to so-called Coloured and Indian people would be a step in the right direction, leading to the eventual granting of the franchise to all South Africans.

In 1984, the members of the Political Science Association of RAU elected me as chairperson. Professor Deon Geldenhuys, who was Dean of the Political Science Department, called me to his office after my election and advised me that as the chairperson I had the duty to expose the wider student body to differing views from across the political spectrum.

I took his guidance to heart, and in my year as chairperson invited various people to address the students during lunchtime, including the likes of Patrick Terror Lekota (later Minister of Defense and founder of the Congress of the People) and Popo Molefe (later Premier of the North West) of the United Democratic Front (UDF); Bishop Tutu (not knowing that only three years later I would work in his hometown, Munsieville), Pieter Dirk Uys (satirical political comedian), Riaan Eksteen (then chairperson of the South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC), Dawie de Villiers (famous Springbok scrum half and National Minister of Trade and Industry) and Aida Parker (editor of a right-wing newspaper).

In his address, Patrick Lekota complained that as privileged White students we did not know about the appalling conditions under which most Black people live in the townships, and he challenged the students to visit Soweto to see for themselves. Not shying away from a challenge, I immediately arranged a bus tour for the students to visit Soweto the following week, not knowing that a few years later I would work in these same townships.

To coordinate the visits of the various speakers to RAU, I often had to travel to their respective offices to discuss and agree on the logistics. In doing so, I made a few trips to Khotso House in central Johannesburg which housed the headquarters of the South African Council of Churches and the Transvaal Regional office of the UDF. It was the same Khotso House that, a few years later, was bombed at the instruction of Minister Adriaan Vlok to make it unworkable for activists.

Some years later a friend of mine who had some connections in the Security Police told me that because of these visits the Special Branch of the SA Police opened a file on me. They suspected I might be involved in subversive left-wing activities against the government of the day!

In 1985 I continued my post-graduate studies towards a BA Honours Degree in Development Studies. As development studies students, we visited a neighbouring country each year as part of an official excursion to learn more about local development programmes and initiatives. In my four years at RAU, we visited Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and what was then considered an independent country under apartheid, Bophuthatswana. These visits exposed me to the political aspirations of Black people and what their leadership in Southern Africa thought of apartheid. This broadened my outlook on life and further shaped my political beliefs on the urgent need for change.

My liberal political views, however, likely cost me a seat on the RAU Student Representative Council (SRC) in 1985. My hostel residence, Oppierif, was divided between supporters of the National and Conservative Parties. Some right-wing Members of Parliament who broke away from the National Party in opposition to the reform policies of P.W. Botha formed the latter party in 1982. Traditionally residence members would support their fellow residents in any SRC election, but the more conservative residents held my liberal political views against me and declined to vote for me.

I did, however, have the privilege to serve as a member of the elected RAU Student Parliament. The SRC chairperson at the time was Marthinus van Schalkwyk, who later became the leader of the New National Party and a national Minister in both the Mbeki and Zuma government administrations.

Another former Deputy Minister in the ANC government, Gert Oosthuizen (photo below), also studied Development Studies at RAU at the same time as me, although he was three years my senior and already busy with post-graduate studies. He did, however, accompany the faculty’s students to the study tour in Swaziland in 1982 and at the time warned us to be on the lookout for ANC activists as they were using Swaziland as a base from which to infiltrate South Africa.

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Start of my career in local government - 1985

In July 1985 I started working as an administration officer at the Johannesburg Regional Office of the then Department of Cooperation and Development, a national department responsible for all the affairs affecting Black people living outside of the then homelands. There was some disagreement between the management of the office regarding in which section they should place me. I eventually ended up in the Black local government section of the department responsible for promoting local government amongst the residents of the townships on the Witwatersrand, leading to a career of over 35 years