Khaya Koko: Katlehong is Mzwandile Masina’s ‘Animal Farm’

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Nothing makes me want to scream an overused George Orwell quote about animals and equality more, than seeing the lights of Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina’s family home shine brightly while the rest of Katlehong is in darkness.

For context, townships and rural areas across the country have been subjected to what I believe to be anti-poor power blackouts, known by the condescending term “load reduction”, for almost two years, during which working class communities experience outages for a five-hour stretch at a time. 

These brutal blackouts are the brainchild of the brainless André De Ruyter, Eskom’s chief executive, who thought it prudent to punish the poor with about 35 hours of power cuts a month for no other reason than to make up for the state-owned entity’s failure to fulfil its role of ensuring a consistent electricity supply to the country. 

The irrational reason for targeting working class areas is purportedly that “townships don’t pay for electricity”, even though the majority of Katlehong households have prepaid metres and are regularly raided by Eskom technicians with audits to check payments.   

However, in the Katlehong section in which Masina’s family home is situated, lights shine bright like a diamond — to borrow from a prominent song by Barbadian singer Rihanna — while the rest of the township is powerless to do anything about being plunged into darkness. 

Now, people could call it a mere coincidence that, of all the areas in Katlehong to experience the good fortune of not being switched off, Masina’s family home and the section it is in are spared. But I don’t really believe in coincidences. 

I mean, in K1 — as my township is affectionately called — I am the (self-proclaimed) king of Katlehong, yet I can’t benefit from the apparent coincidence, even with my royalty status. 

No Animal Farm for me, unfortunately (insert crying emoji here). 

The amount of pain that permeates the township on days when we know we will be “load reduced” is palpable, and I can recall only one day on which we were spared the blackout. 

It was on 10 December last year, and prompted my favourite sports reporter Tholakele Mnganga from Eyewitness News — who is also a resident of K1 — to tweet: “Mzwandile’s maspala (municipality) forgetting to cima ugesi (switch off electricity) is the kind of lack of service delivery I can get behind.” 

Yes, Ms Mnganga, thank goodness for small mercies. 

In fact, as I wrote this column, Katlehong was scheduled to be blacked out again on Tuesday, from 5pm to 10pm. But we have been given a reprieve by regular “load-shedding” (another condescending term), meaning that, instead of five hours, we’ll be blacked out for only two. 

That’s the sort of Stockholm syndrome to which the great nation of K1 has been subjected: thanking our lucky stars for only two hours of darkness. 

Never mind the fact that dozens of small businesses in Katlehong and across Ekurhuleni rely on a steady supply of electricity to drive activity in what Masina and his compadres of the ANC persuasion term “the township economy”. 

The Ekurhuleni mayor himself has publicly pontificated about the positives of the township economy, saying: “The township economy must be owned [and] run by the residents of townships.” 

In another tweet from last year, which was shared on Tuesday morning in the work WhatsApp group by Mail & Guardian online editor, Kiri Rupiah, Masina showed his concern about the effect on black people of the spate of corruption-related arrests by the Hawks.

“[Black] people must unite, these arrests are targeting … black professionals and black business. We need to stand up and be counted. 

“Some Whites have been stealing with impunity and they are not arrested. It’s now or never,” Masina asserted, in a rallying call for black people to forge unity to achieve progress. 

I couldn’t agree with you more, Mr Masina. But there’s fat chance of doing business and progressing with no power.

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