Publicity:

Nelson Mandela promised a South Africa based on freedom and equality. But as the country's former leader lies in hospital critically ill, the nation he fought to create is slowly disintegrating. Violence is commonplace, unemployment is out of control and the ruling ANC Government is accused of rampant corruption.

 

 

Four Corners reporter Matthew Carney goes to South Africa to try and understand the forces that threaten to pull the "rainbow nation" apart. What he finds after nearly 20 years of ANC in government is a tiny black elite have enriched themselves at the expense of a poor black majority. For the poor not much has changed... eighteen million people live on less than two dollars a day.

 

 

The Marikana mine massacre illuminates the massive contradictions and difficulties confronting the country. On the 16th August last year, 3,000 miners gathered to protest sub-standard wages. The police opened fire killing 34 people and wounding another 78. Some were killed in the initial attack, but it's alleged that many who died were actually shot in cold blood by police after the initial salvos were fired. Later, it was alleged the police planted weapons on the dead to justify their actions.

 

 

Carney talks to miners and protestors who survived the massacre, many of whom tell their stories for the first time. Some claim they were tortured and one miner tells how he was shot seven times by a black policeman. Marikana shocked the nation and evoked powerful memories of Apartheid massacres like Sharpeville and Soweto.

 

 

 

The program also looks at the Commission of Inquiry that has been set up to find out what really happened at Marikana. A year on from the tragedy the Inquiry is bogged down in legal argument and there is a serious threat that government funding will be cut for the miners' legal costs.

 

 

Corruption is the other major national issue. As one corruption investigator told the program: "If we are losing billions to corruption, you can imagine what we could have done with the money."

 

 

While the government struggles to provide housing for people, it's now alleged that same government has authorised a retirement home to be built for President Jacob Zuma at a cost to the public purse of close to $30 million. His supporters say it's in the interests of security but the house has already gone way over any official allocation. President Zuma is pleading ignorance but Four Corners has obtained documents that suggest otherwise.

 

 

Nearly 20 years ago Nelson Mandela pledged to his people that the massive wealth of South Africa would lift the poor black majority out of poverty and there would be jobs and houses for all. Two decades on that promise runs hollow and the seeds are there for further upheaval and political instability.

 

 

South African platinum mines shots

Music

00:14

 

MATTHEW CARNEY, REPORTER: More than anyone, Nelson Mandela has made modern day South Africa.

00:32

 

But his legacy of peace and equality has been damaged forever in the mining belt of Marikana, north-east of Johannesburg.

00:40

 

"Is there a problem to film here?"

MAN: "No, there's no problem. Murder here, murder there."

00:48

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: The world's largest platinum mines operate here. It's wealth that's meant to benefit all South Africans.

00:54

 

What happened here has betrayed Mandela's famous words he spoke at his trial before he was jailed for life in 1964 for opposing the Apartheid government.

01:02

GFX over/Mandela

NELSON MANDELA (archival): I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But my Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

01:16

Car drives. Miners walk to protest spot at Marikana

Music

01:50

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: On the 16th August last year about 3000 miners gathered at this spot in Marikana to demand a decent wage from the British platinum mining company Lonmin.

01:54

Helicopter/Striking miners Super:
16 August 2012

They waited most of the day for a response.

02:06

Xolani addresses miners

MATTHEW CARNEY: Xolani Nzuza was one of the organisers of the strike.

02:11

 

Music

02:15

Police confront striking miners

XOLANI NZUZA, MINERS' CO-ORDINATOR (subtitled): At around 4pm, we saw the police beginning to set up razor wire and the mine buses arriving with more police.

02:23

Miners with machete

Music

02:38

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Orders were given by the government to end the strike, so rapid response police teams were sent in.

02:43

 

Tensions were running high. A week of protests had already resulted in six miners and two policemen being killed.

02:50

Miners chanting

 

03:00

Police fire tear gas

MATTHEW CARNEY: Tear gas was fired into the crowd of miners and a group fled towards police lines. Police say the miners had firearms and were ready to attack. In front of television cameras, the mainly black police opened fire.

03:14

Police open fire on miners

POLICE: Cease fire, cease fire!

03:30

Police cease fire and examine miners

MATTHEW CARNEY: In all, 34 miners were killed that day and 78 wounded. It is the most violent clash between police and workers since the end of apartheid.

XOLANI NZUZA: I saw that apartheid was back.

03:52

Xolani

Back then it was the whites killing the blacks and now it was blacks killing blacks. We saw that this was black apartheid, blacks not wanting other blacks to prosper.

04:08

 

Music

04:20

Mzoxolo walking

MATTHEW CARNEY: Remarkably Mzoxolo Magidiwana survived the initial burst of gunfire. He was hit in the hip and left for dead.

04:25

Mzoxolo lying on the ground after shooting amongst dead and injured miners

MATTHEW CARNEY: This is him on the ground.

MZOXOLO MAGIDIWANA: It was so painful to be shot by the police. It was so difficult for me because

04:33

Mzoxolo

I thought I was dying as I saw others die.

04:42

Carney and Mzoxolo look at photo

MATTHEW CARNEY (pointing at photo): Is that you there, are you on the ground, is that you on the ground there?

04:45

 

MZOXOLO MAGIDIWANA: Yes you shoot me.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So you got shot, you fell?

04:48

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: After checking, the police found that Mzoxolo was still alive.

04:52

Mzoxolo lying on the ground after shooting amongst dead and injured miners

In a claim that's been disputed, Mzoxolo says he was turned over and shot six more times by a black policeman.

MZOXOLO MAGIDIWANA: He asked me why

04:56

Carney and Mzoxolo. Super:
MZOXOLO MAGIDIWANA

I was still alive when everybody else is dead. Immediately after saying that he shot me. All these scars here [touches his stomach area], he is the one who shot me.

05:05

Mzoxolo pointing to parts on his body where he was shot

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

05:24

 

My future is fucked up now. It's not right.

05:36

 

Music

05:40

Riot shots

 

05:44

 

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: But most of the killings happened out of sight of the cameras near this small rocky outcrop 100 metres away. Many of the survivors of the first shootings came here to seek refuge.

05:49

Policeman's mobile phone footage of massacre

MATTHEW CARNEY: A policeman's mobile phone video has emerged that suggests 22 were killed here, many of them shot in the back, most unarmed.

06:01

 

POLICE ON MOBILE FOOTAGE: The mother-fucker, I shot him at least 10 times.

06:11

Carney and Xolani walking up ridge where bodies were found

MATTHEW CARNEY: So where were you? Up here? Or...

But the strikers' ordeal was not over.

06:15

 

In the days after the massacre 220 were arrested and charged with the murder of the two policemen. Xolani says he was tortured to extract a confession.

06:21

Xolani. Super:
XOLANI NZUZA

XOLANI NZUZA: They would put the plastic like this [motions to face]. They'd fill the plastic bag with water and then put it over your head and tie it on the neck. They fastened it so that water couldn't leak, and when breathing, water would get into your nose.

06:33

Carney and Mzoxolo looking at photos

MATTHEW CARNEY: Mzoxolo, too, says he was intimidated and threatened while he was in hospital trying to recover.

06:52

Mzoxolo

MZOXOLO MAGIDIWANA: The other people who were shot had been released. I wondered why I was still in custody. The police claimed I've killed the policemen and that I was caught with a gun. I cried, and said they're doing this because I'm alive.

07:01

Police standing over bodies at massacre

Music

07:41

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: The Marikana massacre shocked the nation, and the world.

07:48

Archival. Sharpeville massacre

It evoked powerful memories of Apartheid massacres like Sharpeville in 1960 where white South African police opened fire on black protestors killing 69.

07:52

Archival. Soweto riots

And the Soweto riots of 1976 where 500 were killed.

08:04

 

 

 

ANC Building signage

The African National Congress or ANC fought for decades to free South Africa and since 1994 they've been in government. But now it seems they were turning their guns on their own people.

08:11

Xolani

XOLANI NZUZA: We no longer trust the ANC. We believe the government was involved in these killings. Even when they came to talk to us after the massacre about how this thing happened, we still don't trust the ANC.

08:27

 

ANC building

MATTHEW CARNEY: The ruling ANC government has been forced to set up a Commission of Inquiry into the massacre.

08:52

Sexwale. Super:
TOKYO SEXWALE
Former Minister for Human Settlements

TOKYO SEXWALE, FORMER MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS: As a democratic country security forces have got to be under control; that's why there is an investigation and we called upon everybody, put the cameras in, all news people, show us all the angles what happened here, count the bullets on the ground, who died? And there's an inquest, there's an inquiry. It's run by independent judges, it's there. So, so, I think it's a turning point, a warning, that you're going the wrong way. It's a tragedy that should not have happened.

09:00

Marikana GVs

Music

09:29

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Whatever the Commission of Inquiry concludes, Marikana has highlighted the failure of the ANC's model of development. The country's massive mining wealth has not lifted the poor black majority out of poverty.

09:34

Wonderkop area village

Many of the miners and their families that work at Lonmin live here near Wonderkop. It's a sprawling shanty town of homemade tin shacks where thousands survive with no running water or sewerage and limited electricity.

09:50

 

Zameka crying

Zameka Nungu's husband was killed in the massacre. She's been left with six children to support.

10:09

Zameka. Super:
ZAMEKA NUNGU

ZAMEKA NUNGU (subtitled): If only one could open and see inside my heart, how I am hurting. It's so painful. I do not believe my husband is gone. It's like he is somewhere else. I feel like I am dreaming. It's like I'm in another world. I can't believe that he is gone.

10:17

Nonkululeko

MATTHEW CARNEY: Her friend Nonkululeko Ngxande also lost her husband on that day, leaving her with two young children. Without their husbands these women have little income and little hope of a future.

10:41

Super:
NONKULULEKO NGXANDE

NONKULULEKO NGXANDE (subtitled): It is very painful. I need him a lot, all the time. I do not believe that he is gone, especially when I am suffering like this. Everything was based around him.

10:56

Nonkululeko and Zameka sit together

MATTHEW CARNEY: They came from the Eastern Cape, one of the poorest provinces of South Africa, with a dream of a better life.

11:23

Zameka holds photo of husband

ZAMEKA NUNGU (subtitled): We wished that our children will be educated and complete their schooling and get good jobs.

11:32

Zameka

My husband always said he doesn't want his children to work in the mines because mines are oppressive.

11:42

Women walk

 

11:50

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: These are the very people the liberation struggle was meant to help.

NONKULULEKO NGXANDE (subtitled): We loved the government

11:56

Nonkululeko

but now the ANC doesn't help. It kills its own people, those who support it to rule this country. It has killed. It has killed our own. We don't care about it anymore.

12:06

Widows sing

WIDOWS SINGING (subtitled): Even when we are killed. Even when we suffer in this country. It's alright, we will pray.

12:32

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Now they just have each other, and broken dreams. They don't know how they will survive. Soon they'll return to their homeland in the Eastern Cape a thousand kilometres to the south.

13:04

Miners walk along road to mine

(Singing continues)

13:18

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Not much has changed here since Apartheid, underpaid black labour still powers the mines and it's mainly the whites who own the industry and take the profits.

13:22

 

 

The only difference is that a tiny black elite have joined the white elite on boards of companies. In the late 1990's the ANC government struck a deal with business, they would keep labour cheap and stable in return for some black ownership.

13:34

 

Many see this arrangement has been at the expense of poor black South Africans, while a, few like Tokyo Sexwale, have benefited.

13:52

Sexwale

TOKYO SEXWALE: The approach there was black economic empowerment to let black people advance. I'm one of them, by the way. I went into business for quite some time in mining, in the financial services and so on. Is it the only solution? Certainly not. It is just one way. It is just a way of getting people into the ownership of companies. But that's not what we're trying to do, to get everybody to become a businessman.

MATTHEW CARNEY: But it seems to have only benefited for a few at this stage?

14:01

[shot continuous]

TOKYO SEXWALE: Naturally. I'll accept that, I'll accept that, because the approach is you can't turn everybody into a shareholder in the country.

14:27

Inside Paballo Thekiso's house

Music

14:35

 

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: 27 year old Paballo Thekiso is not part South Africa's wealthy elite, but he's certainly prospered because of the new freedoms won by Mandela and the ANC.

14:39

 

He's a part the growing black middle class. And he's juggling a new baby and a successful career as a photographer. Paballo came from the slums of Soweto.

14:53

 

PABALLO THEKISO: I didn't even dream that I would stay in a house like this where you have your own space, you have your own house.

15:05

Paballo

I think a lot of people who'd, I mean I hear my friends when they visit from Soweto, they think this is heaven.

15:12

Paballo collects cameras and leaves house

Music

15:19

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Do you feel privileged in any sense?

PABALLO THEKISO: I do feel privileged, even though

15:28

Garage door opens

I'm never satisfied with myself, so I want the bigger house than this. I don't want --

15:31

Paballo

I feel like this is okay for now with one child and a wife.

15:36

Paballo in car

Music

15:39

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Paballo is living in Roodepoort. It was once the domain of whites, but the new black middle class is starting to move in.

15:47

Paballo arrives at work

 

15:56

Paballo walking into office and greeting Celia

PABALLO THEKISO: Celia, morning, morning how's it? Cool.

CELIA, BOSS: So what have you got on your agenda today?

MATTHEW CARNEY: Paballo is the chief photographer of a major national newspaper, the 'Saturday Star'.

16:04

 

PABALLO THEKISO (Talking to Celia): So I'll be going with Noni...

MATTHEW CARNEY: He's been part of an ANC strategy to increase black participation in all industries and professions.

16:16

 

 

PABALLO THEKISO (talking to Celia): So we'll chat later, I'm just going to go with Noni. Cool, bye.

MATTHEW CARNEY: When he got his job here, Paballo was given preference over a white candidate who had a similar skill set. It's positive discrimination; under Apartheid

16:24

Paballo leaves office

blacks were restricted to menial employment.

PABALLO THEKISO: The system is trying to fix the mistakes of the past, so I can say yes, freedom helps in that regard to say

16:39

Paballo

we are now free to become whatever we want, to get positions we want, as long as we are qualified then we can do the job properly.

16:50

Soweto GVs

Music

16:58

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Paballo retains a strong connection to his roots in Soweto, and Soweto holds a special place in the liberation struggle.

17:02

Paballo visiting his parents

On weekends he visits his parents in the same house where he grew up.

17:13

 

PABALLO THEKISO (greeting his parents): Hi, how's it? How's it? Pop.

MARIA THEKISO: I'm ok.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Paballo was brought up in a world vastly different to his parents.

17:20

 

PABALLO THEKISO [to parents]: How are you?

MARIA THEKISO: No, we're blessed.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Under Apartheid many blacks were uprooted from Johannesburg in the 1950's and forced to re-settle in what is now Soweto.

17:32

 

MARIA THEKISO: Oh yes it is so nice to be together, missing this moment.

(Paballo laughs)

17:45

Solomon. Super:
SOLOMON THEKISO

SOLOMON THEKISO, PABALLO'S FATHER: Once you are black you couldn't say anything to a white person like now. You, if, even if you see something is wrong you just say yeah, boss, yeah boss. That's why apartheid was not good. You were just like a slave, that time.

17:49

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Paballo's parents were not active politically. His father, Solomon worked hard all his life as a clerk and his mother Maria studied long and hard to become a teacher.

18:13

 

Together they've instilled the values of education and ambition into their four sons, who all went to university and on to successful careers.

18:29

Maria. Super:
MARIA THEKISO

MARIA THEKISO: I used to tell them that you know what, education is a weapon. It's a weapon to brighter future, and I could not even elaborate further, because I was a living testimony to them.

18:38

Paballo greeting friends in hometown

 

18:58

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Later, Paballo finds his Soweto friends sitting in the same place, in the same positions, largely unemployed.

19:07

 

PABALLO THEKISO: You know, I'm been hiding in the suburbs.

19:15

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: The reality is that opportunity and success only comes to a few. Paballo made it out, but they didn't.

19:21

Paballo's friend

FRIEND: You are the one who benefited more than us from the Mandela legacy. So therefore you are living in the suburbs and we are still here. So if maybe you can connect us with the right people and the right places, we will be like you my friend.

PABALLO THEKISO: That's a tough one.

19:29

 

So you're not choosing jobs, you just want any job?

FRIEND: No, any job, I can do, as long as I get paid.

19:44

 

Paballo with friends

PABALLO THEKISO: First of all, you look at their family backgrounds, there is no one who works, no one can afford to take them to schools. If you can't afford education, you can't get a good job, which means you are uneducated, you're unemployable so you are left with hustling like they were saying.

19:51

Paballo. Super:
PABALLO THEKISO

To be honest I really feel sad, because sometimes when I visit they'll ask to wash my car, just for me to pay them something and that's really sad to see that I grew up with this guy, he's supposed to be something but today he's begging me for 30 rand. I mean really.

20:08

Paballo taking photos in Soweto

Music

20:26

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Paballo does a lot of work in Soweto.

20:30

Paballo's photos of Soweto children

Music

20:33

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: He likes to highlight injustice. It's his way of giving back.

20:36

Paballo takes photos

PABALLO THEKISO: The kind of stories I'm going to tell through my lens would be stories that will provoke emotion, stories that will provoke change, stories that will provoke action. I feel like there is a higher calling, there's a higher purpose why I'm in the job that I'm in. Because

20:46

 

Paballo

if we, those who have opportunities, do nothing about the injustices we see around us, then we are also at fault, we are to be blamed for what's happening around us. We cannot change all situations, but we can change some situations.

21:04

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: But the question is why haven't there been more success stories for black South Africans.

21:25

Jacob Zuma rally

 

21:35

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: It is this man, the president of South Africa Jacob Zuma, who has come to symbolise what's wrong with South Africa; endemic corruption.

21:39

Carney in car travelling to Nkandla

Music

21:52

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Almost daily, new corruption scandals emerge and they go right to the top. One of the biggest centres around the small village of Nkandla, about two hours north of Durban. We went to investigate.

21:56

Jacob Zuma's private estate

MATTHEW CARNEY: This is president Jacob Zuma's private retirement home. It's more of a complex; 31 new buildings, a double helipad, underground bunkers, soccer fields and a gym, to name a few of the features. It will house the President's four wives and his 20 children.

22:11

 

People are outraged that 270 million rand or about 30 million dollars of state funds has been used to build most of it.

22:34

Bongi. Super:
BONGI MLANGENI
Corruption Watch

BONGI MLANGENI, CORRUPTION WATCH: We know that if we do not introduce higher levels of accountability right at the top, we will be fooling ourselves, you know, in thinking that corruption can be fought without addressing those who lead us.

22:45

Zuma's estate

MATTHEW CARNEY: President Zuma's supporters have tried to justify the spending on security grounds. But it goes well above any official allocation. The president already has three other official houses to conduct state business.

23:03

Woman at fence

Local residents don't see a problem. His gain is their gain.

WOMAN: We had nothing but now he has given us water. He has given us electricity.

23:21

Woman

What else can one want? Nothing.

23:25

Neighbouring village

MATTHEW CARNEY: But the largesse stops in the next valley; there's no electricity or water here.

23:38

Village woman

VILLAGE WOMAN: He develops his area and there is nothing being spent here. To his family yes, but not us.

23:48

 

Zuma compound/ GFX over of documents

MATTHEW CARNEY: President Zuma claims there was no inappropriate spending at Nkandla. However recently released documents, many labelled "top secret", suggest otherwise.

24:06

 

This memo shows a request, later approved, to divert public funds to Zuma's house at Nkandla. It says...

24:20

 

TOP SECRET DOCUMENT VO: "Request the approval to shift funds from the Inner City Regeneration programme to fund a Prestige capital project."

24:28

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: In a draft report the project is deemed 'Top Secret', because...

24:35

 

TOP SECRET DOCUMENT VO: "These projects are further targeted by journalists in an attempt to discredit the Government in general."

24:40

Zuma rally

MATTHEW CARNEY: President Zuma has made possessing documents like these a crime that can be punished with a 10 year jail term. Remarkably he's using a 1982 Apartheid law, "The Protection of Information Act", to do it. There've been no arrests, so far.

24:47

Bongi in office

Bongi Mlangeni helped set up Corruption Watch and in just 16 months they've received four and a half thousand reports of corruption from the public and officials.

25:08

 

BONGI MLANGENI: If we are losing billions to corruption,

25:23

 

you can imagine what we could have done with that money. You can imagine the number of houses that could have been built. You can imagine, you know, levels of employment improving. Basically the cost is really in what has been denied to the poor.

25:26

Tembisa shanty town

Music

25:47

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: This is a shanty town in Tembisa on the northern fringes of Johannesburg.

26:04

Morongoa

20 year old Morongoa Mabitla has agreed to show us what life is like for the majority of poor black South Africans.

26:14

Tembisa

Music

26:21

Morongoa show Carney registration numbers

MATTHEW CARNEY: In Tembisa, they've been living in these shacks for 14 years. On most of the tin sheds are these numbers. One from the year 2000 and the other from 2007. It means they're registered on the housing waiting list.

26:27

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: So for 14 years they've been promising?

MORONGOA MABITLA: Yeah. Always promises, promises, and nothing was done about it.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So do people get sick of it?

MORONGOA MABITLA: Yeah, we do.

26:44

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: So they come, what, just before elections and they do this and...

MORONGOA MABITLA: Yeah, next year it's elections, so they will be coming, a lot of them will be coming.

MATTHEW CARNEY: And putting numbers up and promising things and then...

MORONGOA MABITLA: Promising things that are never actually delivered.

26:54

Morongoa carrying bucket

MATTHEW CARNEY: A core promise of the ANC as a liberation movement and in government, has always been to provide housing for the poor - but millions remain homeless.

MORONGOA MABITLA: But then hey,

27:06

Morongoa. Super:
MORONGOA MABITLA

what can we say? We've got no power over them, so they can do whatever they like with us, which is unfair because we're only human, all we need is basic, simple, basic needs like houses, a roof over our head, clothes and stuff like that, and water.

27:21

 

Morongoa collects water from communal tap

MATTHEW CARNEY: The people of Tembisa share communal taps, usually located in the dusty and dirty streets. Morongoa comes here five or six times a day to fill up her bucket.

MORONGOA MABITLA: This is where I get water.

27:40

 

People pee on this side, and then we just, get water this side. You can imagine the kind of germs we're exposed to.

27:57

Sewerage truck pumps toilets

MATTHEW CARNEY: As a concession the government put some portable toilets near a few of the shacks. A truck is meant to come once week to pump out the sewerage, but often it doesn't make it to Tembisa.

MORONGOA MABITLA: They obviously didn't come on Sunday, they didn't come yesterday so they came today and now they're draining the toilets out.

28:05

Morongoa watches sewerage truck

It's disgusting, you can even feel the smell, but then we're used to it, you know.

28:30

Young men around Tembisa gambling

MATTHEW CARNEY: What concerns Morongoa most is the lack of jobs. Officially about one in two youths are unemployed. But here, it's much more. There's little to do and many gamble to pass the time.

28:36

 

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: So how long do they gamble for?

MORONGOA MABITLA: It could take about the whole day,

28:57

Morongoa and Carney

24 hours sometimes, because even at night you can still hear them, throwing the dice and saying hey pop, hey, hey, you know, making those, those noises.

29:01

Gamblers playing dice

MATTHEW CARNEY: Morongoa and the youth of Tembisa are meant to be the 'born-frees' - a generation that has grown up under the new freedoms and opportunities Mandela and the ANC fought so hard for.

29:09

Carney with gambling youth

LOCAL I: We're unemployed so we are just...

LOCAL II: We're playing Ludo here.

LOCAL III: We call it Ludo, this one.

29:24

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Do you think you'd like anything fixed, or anything

29:31

Carney with local guy

to change?

LOCAL GUY: Like what, fix, like what?

MATTHEW CARNEY: I don't know, I'm asking you.

LOCAL GUY: Moving from the shacks? We can't, we can't. Look how many shacks there are.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So you don't think you'll be able to move at all?

LOCAL GUY: No.

29:35

Guys gambling

MORONGOA MABITLA: If you look back at the people from the back 1970s,

29:49

Morongoa

those people knew what it was that they needed to do and they did it. They fight against, they don't fight against each other; they fight for as a group you know, as a whole they fight for better future, fight for whatever they believed in. But us, you know, we tend to judge, we discriminate, we are lost. Let me just say, we are a lost youth.

29:54

Guys playing pool in tavern

Music

30:20

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: There is little hope of the lost youth getting out of Tembisa. Crime is rampant and the proceeds are usually spent at the local tavern.

30:28

Morongoa carrying bucket to tap

Morongoa says the youth have been liberated politically but not economically.

30:40

Tembisa people

It's estimated 18 million South Africans live on less than $2 a day. And she blames President Zuma for that.

30:46

Morongoa

MATTHEW CARNEY: If President Zuma was to walk in here, now, what would you tell him?

MORONGOA MABITLA: Could you please try and live up to your responsibilities and your promises that you made? To the country as a whole. We're not ask given much, but we just asking to be recognised as few individuals even though we live in shacks, we stay human at the end of the day. So try and put your attention on us instead of putting attention in other or in less important things. Yeah.

30:55

Morongoa fixing her friend's hair

MORONGOA MABITLA: I was just fixing her hair to get ready for school, she's going to school right now, so just have make it beautiful and stylish.

31:27

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: To survive, Morongoa has built a close network of friends around her.

MORONGOA MABITLA: I'm a hair psychologist,

31:39

 

or a hair therapist. If she's got troubles she talks to me and I'm like, go on, talk, let it all out, cry girl, cry, cry, let the steam off, shout at me. (Laughs) No just make yourself feel better.

31:47

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Morongoa finished high school last year with good grades, and she wants to get a job or continue studies.

MORONGOA MABITLA: These days it's not about what you have; it's about who you know.

32:01

Morongoa

You know, if you know someone from somewhere, obviously you put, that person will put in a good word for you and then you get through in life, you know. If you have money you can buy anything. You know they say money can buy anything.

32:13

Morongoa cooking for her mother

MATTHEW CARNEY: But that's something Morongoa and her family don't have.

MORONGOA MABITLA: I'm cooking dinner for Mum

32:26

 

before she goes to work, it's called Pap. It's not really that hard to make but then you have to maintain it. It's an everyday dish in South Africa. For most black people, we eat this each and every day, because it's filling.

32:34

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Morongoa lives in this shack with her mother Tebogo, and her little brother and sister. Her father left a long time ago.

32:56

 

Tebogo works 12 hours through the night at a laundry in central Johannesburg seven days a week.

33:06

 

She's saving up so Morongoa can go to university or college. She's determined to see her daughter have a better life than what she has.

33:15

 

Tebogo

TEBOGO MABITLA, MORONGOA'S MOTHER (subtitled): She must take care of herself and be responsible. She must get educated so that she can choose the job she wants, unlike us who are not educated, we take any job.

33:24

Tebogo and Morongoa eat

MATTHEW CARNEY: Tebogo remembers the high hopes when Mandela became president. But now the gap between the rich and poor is wider than ever.

33:45

Tebogo. Super:
TEBOGO MABITLA

TEBOGO MABITLA (subtitled): We were happy when Mandela became president. Things were good. President Thabo and Zuma changed things from better to worse.

33:54

Vukani dance troupe performing

 

34:10

Morongoa in dance troupe

MATTHEW CARNEY: More than anything, what keeps Morongoa happy is her dancing. She's a member of Vukani, a dance troupe, and today they're performing in the streets of Tembisa.

34:20

 

MORONGOA MABITLA: You know when you dance, when you and commit yourself,

34:37

Morongoa and friend

you get away from many troubles.

34:40

Vukani dance troupe performing

 

34:44

 

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: And this performance of the Gumboot Song is one of defiance. It's based on a protest song developed half a century ago by the black miners of South Africa in response to the harsh conditions in the mines.

48:49

Carney to camera. Super:
MATTHEW CARNEY

Life in Tembisa goes on, but there's tension and frustration here, most of the youth are jobless. Many feel the ANC has failed them, but they can't find any alternative party to take up their cause. It's places like this that will test the future stability of the country and be the biggest challenge to Mandela's legacy of peace and unity.

35:07

Cheering crowd on Mandela Day. Zuma walks with entourage

 

35:31

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: We wanted to put some questions to president Zuma and we were told on Mandela Day, Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday, we'd get that opportunity. The president was in Pretoria handing over 15 houses to poor white families.

35:49

 

JACOB ZUMA: There must be houses; there must be comforts for all. And that's what we are committed to do.

36:17

Zuma addresses crowd

I'm very happy really to see you here. We will have houses even to those who are still waiting. The program continues. They will get the houses.

36:23

 

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: After nearly 20 years in power, the ANC says it's built three million houses with another two million planned. But corruption and incompetence are undermining the program of renewal.

36:38

President Zuma walking, surrounded by security

This is about as close as we got to putting questions to the President.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Mr President, Mr President, I'm from ABC television, congratulations on Mandela Day, congratulations.

JACOB ZUMA: Thank you.

MATTHEW CARNEY: What do you thinks' been achieved sir?

JACOB ZUMA: Happy Mandela Day!

36:56

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Tokyo Sexwale was Minister for Human Settlements for four years. Last month president Zuma removed him because he was seen as a rival for the top job.

37:16

Sexwale. Super:
TOKYO SEXWALE
Former Minister for Human Settlements

TOKYO SEXWALE: A government which is confronted with a lot of difficulties and challenges around education, health, poverty and so on. These issues have got to be addressed, and I think we're getting there. But our problems, we must admit, with our, not policy problems, the policies are in place, but implementation and making sure that people are held accountable to what they're supposed to be doing.

37:27

Inside Commission Inquiry

COMMISSION MEMBER: In the absence of interim funding, the application for a postponement will be heard and decided on Monday.

MATTHEW CARNEY: And the biggest accountability test for the ANC government is the Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana mine massacre.

COMMISSION JUDGE: The order we make is that

37:50

Commission judge

the sitting of the commission will be adjourned.

38:08

Commission adjourns

MATTHEW CARNEY: So far the Commission, which has been sitting for 10 months has been dogged by delays and false starts.

38:13

Teboho. Super:
TEBOHO MOSIKILI
Lawyer for miners' families

TEBOHO MOSIKILI, LAWYER FOR MINERS' FAMILIES: It will be a huge disgrace, it will be a huge loss. If the Commission for example was to stop its work, I don't know what would happen.

38:21

Return to massacre footage

MATTHEW CARNEY: The Commission has heard compelling evidence against the police actions.

38:29

Stills. Dead miners

These pictures show how the police planted false evidence to try and justify the killings, by placing weapons beside the dead for the official police photos, when photos taken earlier by the media show no weapons present.

38:37

Zameka and Nonkululeko

The widows and their lawyers are seriously concerned that the miners are going to have their legal funding cut by the government. And if that happens they'll boycott the Commission.

38:53

Nonkululeko

NONKULULEKO NGXANDE (subtitled): We came to hear what happened to our husbands. It troubles us that workers who witnessed the massacre have no lawyers. If they are not able to be represented, we feel pained because they were there at the time our husbands were killed. It means there is no truth in this commission.

39:06

Widows enter commission

MATTHEW CARNEY: It's also proving to be dangerous to be a witness at the Marikana Commission. Six miners have been murdered, just before they were to take the stand.

TEBOHO MOSIKILI: You know, crucial potential witnesses kept on dying. Unfortunately we cannot,

39:33

Teboho

as the other people pin it on any of the parties, but it is disturbing. It is disturbing to an extent that one of their own advocates was also stabbed and it was somehow suspected that it was linked to the commission itself.

39:56

Stills. Dead miners/ Massacred footage

MATTHEW CARNEY: There's little faith in the commission. Currently in South Africa about 9000 police officers face criminal charges such as rape, corruption and assault. But less than 100 have ever been convicted.

40:08

Shanty towns

For many in this country the ANC has lost its vision and moral authority.

40:28

 

PABALLO THEKISO: I don't see good education system, I don't see better health system, I don't see I don't see anything new that's coming up that's positive. And, and I think we either need a change of leadership

40:42

Paballo

in the ANC, or we need a new party that can take the country into a different direction, because I don't think where we are at the moment, the ruling party can handle the mess that's happening.

40:55

Shanty town/ Dancers

Music

41:11

 

MATTHEW CARNEY: In the shanty towns of South Africa, and indeed the rest of the country, there is still is energy and vibrancy, despite all the hardships. The challenge for the ANC government is to harness that passion and drive and use it to direct change.

41:28

 

The current leadership only has a short opening to prove to the people that it can deliver results and honour the legacy of Mandela.

41:49

 

For the freedom generation are looking for a new revolution.

41:59

 

 

42:11

 

 

Credits:

Reporter: Matthew Carney

Producer: Peter Cronau

Camera/Sound: Louie Eroglu ACS

Fixer: Dingani Masuku

Editor: Guy Bowden

Assistant editor: Amy Noble

Archive producer: Michelle Baddiley

Additional footage/images: Thomson - Reuters

Newspix

Paballo Thekiso

 

Special thanks to:

Lee-Ann Alfreds

Paddy Harper

Diana Lucas

Lebogang Nkooe

Cheryl Uyes-Allie

 

Driver:

Alright Ramasala

 

Translations:

Dingani Masuku

Immaculate Mloyi

 

Library researcher: Keryn Kelleway

 

ABC Legal: Michael Martin

 

Producer's assistant: Wendy Purchase

 

Production managers: Susan Cardwell, Robert Hodgson

 

Supervising producer: Mark Bannerman

 

Executive producer: Sue Spencer

 

© 2024 Journeyman Pictures
Journeyman Pictures Ltd. 4-6 High Street, Thames Ditton, Surrey, KT7 0RY, United Kingdom
Email: info@journeyman.tv

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