JUSTICE MALALA: Lifted by the G20, turned off by taps

I spent last weekend alternating between watching the G20 leaders’ summit on TV and running to the loo. I was at my mother’s house in Hammanskraal, where there has been a typhoid outbreak and where water from the Temba water treatment plant has been declared unfit for human consumption.

It’s unfit for human consumption because, as the City of Tshwane says, “it has been impacted by effluent pollution from upstream at the Rooiwal wastewater treatment works”.

You will know the Rooiwal works. In 2019, Tshwane awarded a R292m contract to Blackhead Consulting, CMS Water Engineering and NJR Projects, a civil engineering firm owned by the ANC-linked tenderpreneur Edwin Sodi. Bank records at the Zondo commission revealed how he had made multimillion-rand payments to the ANC, including to then treasurer Paul Mashatile and cabinet ministers between 2013 and 2019.

The contract was to carry out critical repairs to the Rooiwal plant, but the city cancelled the half-completed project after three years. In June this year the Pretoria high court found the awarding of the contract did not comply with legal and procedural requirements. It ordered Sodi’s companies and their joint venture to pay back profits of the contract.

Meanwhile, the people of Hammanskraal have to buy water privately because there is effluent in the public water system. I went to a local joint, 717 Hangout, for a bite to eat. When the food came, I stood up to wash my hands. Not so fast, said the waitress. She gave me a bowl of boiled water to use.

On the way back to my mother’s house, I complained to my friend about potholes. He told me repair work was supposed to start on the road on Monday. However, a local “businessman” was organising against the project because he said “locals must do the work”. This is the same guy who stopped the building of a new clinic in the village because he demanded a cut. There is a name for this — the construction mafia.

Even as the praise pours in, the truth is that it means absolutely nothing unless South Africans do not have to think twice before drinking water from their taps

So my weekend was spent on the sofa applauding as President Cyril Ramaphosa and his fellow politicians in the GNU, civil servants, the media and private citizens put on a spectacular G20 summit in Joburg. The organisation was smooth. The heads of state of the G20 countries plus various other invited guests were more than impressed.

Then there was the content of the conference itself. US President Donald Trump, egged on by a chorus of South Africans who falsely claim a white genocide no-one can see, tried to bully and belittle Ramaphosa and the South African government. He was outmanoeuvred and the US was exposed as a waning force in international affairs as the summit declaration Trump had tried to derail was adopted enthusiastically on the first day.

It was wonderful, and there was a deep sense of satisfaction on Sunday evening as various heads of state genuinely expressed their happiness with the meeting and its conclusions. It was yet another fillip for Ramaphosa’s administration after recent positive news on the medium-term budget, the rand, South Africa being taken off the greylist of dodgy countries, and serious indications of ratings agency upgrades.

The problem is that the negatives remain overwhelming. South Africa is a country enduring a polycrisis. In many countries, the disaster in Hammanskraal would dominate the national news agenda. In South Africa, it has barely been reported.

Several hearings into the conduct of the police minister and top cops are under way, and a standout fact of South Africa hosting the G20 was that it has the highest unemployment rate of all the body’s members. That’s a serious indictment.

So, even as the praise pours in, the truth is that it means absolutely nothing unless South Africans like my mother do not have to think twice before drinking water from their taps. It means nothing unless they feel safe in their homes.

The G20 summit should serve as a reminder to South Africa’s leaders that the primary challenge is here at home, and plaudits from foreign leaders mean little until our own people have work and are safe and fulfilling their potential.