BACK TO THE FUTURE: Cathcart Residents’ Association chairperson Kenneth Sigidi speaks about issues dissatisfying the people of Cathcart townships who want Cathcart, which at present falls under the authority of the Amathlathi Municipality based in Stutterheim, to be moved under the Lukhanji Municipality based in Queenstown because they claim that since 1994 they have seen no changes in their town. Picture: MLONDOLOZI MBOLO
Veteran Cathcart activist Kenneth Sigidi is no stranger to uprising and taking on the system, and he has paid a taxing price in pursuit of equal treatment and dignity for his community in the past, reports Sabelo Skiti.
But he never thought that close to two decades after freedom he would still be knee-deep in the trenches, this time fighting a government headed by former comrades.
Hopefully, this battle won’t leave him scarred as in the 80s, when a police beating left him partially deaf in one ear (he still uses a hearing aid today).
Sigidi, 62, is the chairman of the revived Cathcart Residents’ Association (Cara), one of eight such associations set to contest the May 18 local government elections in some municipalities in the province.
Cara will contest both ward and proportional representation seats at Amathlathi Local Municipality, which comprises Kei Road, Keiskammahoek, and Stutterheim.
On an overcast, wet, and generally miserable Sunday, we sat in a rundown community advice office, from which Sigidi operates, before taking a tour of the townships.
The mood during this conversation wasn’t much different from the weather.
Sigidi began with: “In all honesty, there is no hope if things carry on the way they are. There has been no development here and, instead, the little facilities we had from before freedom are breaking down because they’re not maintained.
“That’s why you hear people say they prefer our previous rulers. We used to see services and this current leadership has done nothing to enable the people,” he added.
The residents’ association was originally formed in the 1980s at a time when the residents were fighting against forced removal at the hands of the apartheid system.
“When the bulldozers came, that’s when Cara was born. As residents, we fought and fought against the removal until the political parties also got involved.”
Today’s fight is for a host of reasons which are linked to perceived neglect from the municipality, which lies on the boundary between Amathole and Chris Hani districts.
“But what we’ve seen is that in the last 17 years there has been no real development. Instead, faces were changing in council. It resembled a stokvel where people were being given chances to be in council.”
Sigidi said Cathcart, which is on the border between the two districts, has seen no benefit, development or improvement since the 1994 elections, whose results saw the town move from being served by the Queenstown Municipality to Stutterheim.
None has been hardest hit than the residents of the two townships in Cathcart, where a large portion either work on the nearby farms, in the few shops in town, or rely on some form of government grants.
A large section of the youth is not self sufficient.
A drive through the streets of both Katyi-Katyi, a newer township where people were relocated by the previous government for planned factories, and the original Daliwe was slow and difficult in our 4×4, as even the gravel road had deteriorated due to no maintenance.
Driving in Daliwe was made worse by the putrid smell emanating from overflowing or leaking septic tanks, which the community has used since apartheid days.
The little community and sporting facilities Katyi-Katyi had – built by the apartheid government to entice residents to leave Daliwe – are now in ruins and severely vandalized.
The only rugby and soccer fields are denoted by a brick fence , broken stands and changing rooms with no doors, windows – or roof.
“The little facilities we inherited are all broken down because they weren’t properly maintained. This is despite appeals to the Amahlathi Municipality from our youth and us.
“There is plenty development in places like Stutterheim and Keiskammahoek, so you tell me if we’re part of this municipality,” said Sigidi.
Cathcart also used to derive a little economic activity from the passenger train travelling from East London to Johannesburg. The train no longer stops in Cathcart because of the unkempt station building.
“People’s lives were easier and (they were) able to have transport to Queenstown and East London, especially if they were carrying lots of goods. Because there’s no public transport, people rely on lifts from passing motorists.”
But lay preacher Sigidi, who relies on occasional funds from his development work to supplement his wife’s salary from working at a local hospital to feed his family, hopes the elections bring change.
The fight, he said, will be to have his town moved from Amahlathi and taken under Lukhanji Municipality, which is based in Queenstown.
“Just like we formed to fight our removal from the old township, we will now start the fight to move us back to rule under Queenstown. The people cannot take this neglect any longer.”
Cara decided that those who make it to council will have to donate R1500 of their salaries to the community.
These funds, Sigidi said, would be used for various small projects in the community such as cleaning and minor refurbishments.
Sigidi reckons that the ANC, which expelled him in 1998 for his outspokenness, has lost its way from the party he joined during the tumultuous times in the late 1970s.
