North West’s Nkandla at the centre of a political contest
Nkandla, the virtually unknown shack sprawl on the outskirts of Tlhabane, is nothing like its namesake and President Jacob Zuma's homestead in KZN.
|||Nkandla, Rustenburg - Nkandla is arguably the smallest place at stake in the local government elections in the North West town of Rustenburg.
The virtually unknown shack sprawl on the outskirts of Tlhabane is nothing like its namesake and President Jacob Zuma's homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.
Yet to locals here it may well stake its claim as a centre of a political contest in this election.
In an area where most shack-sprawl residents are complaining about lack of services, Nkandla is a conspicuous exception.
The area which falls under Rustenburg's ward 43 is being sought by all main political parties, the ANC, DA, EFF and a community based forum of independent candidates.
The ANC has adopted a development model on areas like it as a means to formalise the informal settlements, in addition to providing housing around the province.
The Rustenburg municipality has provided roads, water and toilets to the area and moved people to it from informal settlements with no services, in the hope that those who can will build themselves houses.
In Nkandla however, the community has largely remained in shacks and without electricity.
Opposition parties campaigning on the ground sought to use the area to shame the ANC for moving people from shacks into other shacks.
To locals however, in particular taxi drivers, who gave the area its name Nkandla, it is one of the fastest developing settlements they had ever seen.
They equate the speed to which basic services like toilets, running water and tarred roads were made available only to the development of Zuma's homestead - hence the name.
“The name Nkandla came from the taxi rank because of how fast the barren land that it was here was developed,” said a resident of the area Siboniso Ngcobo. “The only thing we don't have yet here is electricity only a few RDP houses have now. We have flushing toilets and water running all the time and we even have the municipality collecting rubbish from every shack.”
Another resident who didn't want to be named said electricity was not an issue for now because the municipality has explained it wanted to wait for houses to be built first in order to supply it.
Nkandla, according to locals was built two years ago when some residents of a hot spot area called Yizo-Yizo were moved into the empty stands with water, toilets and tarred streets.
The area remains a construction site with piles of sand alongside the roads as contractors continue to dig up the ground to lay pipes for sewerage.
Elections Bureau