Motlanthe digs deep for poor
2009-11-21 20:16
Jacobsdal - Trowel in hand, levelling a wet cement floor in Jacobsdal on Saturday, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe started a government inspection of a poverty alleviation project in southern Free State.
"Ons kan nie konkel werk doen nie (We cannot do blotch work here), where is the plank to straighten this?" Motlanthe asked those around him while he helped to level a new concrete floor, after a new load of cement was dropped.
The house being built forms part of the Free State's "Operation Hlalela", a project launched as part of what officials said was "the war on poverty" in the region.
"Maak vol, maak vol tot bo (Fill-up, fill-up to the top)," workers encouraged those filling Motlanthe's wheel-borrow and that of Free State Premier Ace Magashule who also jumped in to help.
Spinach for president
The new house will be for Skwear, 71, and Liesbet Magoda and was being built in front of a corrugated iron shack.
"We are very happy with the building of the new house," Liesbet said in Afrikaans. "We [stayed] in the old house for four years."
Siena Dike, dressed in traditional white clothes, smiled and greeted Motlanthe with a bag of spinach in hand.
She has a long discussion with the deputy president at her newly built house, while they inspected her neat vegetable garden.
Dike was a finalist in one of the categories of this year's Free State Female Farmer of the Year competition. She had received some trees to mark the deputy president's visit to her house.
Few job opportunities
Standing some way off, watching the group with a few friends, Jaun Kabayng, 33, said the deputy president's visit was a good thing.
"This is good. There had never been so many people which had visited the location."
Unemployed, he said the biggest problem was the lack of work opportunities in the region. Kabayng said better placements should also be made for housing stands, because some of them were placed "between the stones [rocks]".
Asked if he thinks Motlanthe's visit would help the community further in its development, Kabayng said he was positive.
"I hope so, but we need work," he said to a choir of agreement from his friends.
Some 100 houses had been built in Jacobsdal using jobless skilled labourers from within the community.
Working as a team
Carpenters Neville Wiese, 52, and Frikkie Louw, 43, were hanging doors at a near complete house, when Motlanthe visited the house across the street.
Wiese said the project has helped him with work. "We work in teams, some doing other houses. I have done one roof and nine doors."
He thinks the government project was good. "Some people got houses, others got work."
Another resident waiting to talk to Motlanthe was Frans "Oom Frans" Papier, 49, staying in Generations, was also very proud of his vegetable garden.
In the discussion with the deputy president, an official said that Papier had worked at a local public works project that renovated the local community hall.
"Nee!, dit was nie werk nie, nee man (No!, that was not work, no man)," Papier said as he interrupted an official, adding that a proper work opportunity would be better.
He nevertheless added that the government could help him with some money and seeds for the garden.
Nice cars
Most of the visited houses the entourage visited had a large, water tank connected to the houses roof and a small greenhouse of netting, in which vegetables were grown.
Motlanthe also visited a Christmas party for children at the Letsemeng municipality building in town, handing out presents with the local "Father Christmas".
The deputy president was accompanied by several national ministers, Free State MECs and government officials.
While Motlanthe was taking part in an imbizo with residents and the entourage, children outside were arguing and admiring the luxury German vehicles standing outside.
"You saw the BM(W), I have seen it long ago, long before you," one told his friend.
They were scolded by a passing woman telling them to attend school "dan kan julle julle eie BMs koop - (then you can buy your own BMs".
- SAPA