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In Beaufort West, residents are united across class and race lines with a shared concern about how politicians are mismanaging the town. Tellingly, an organisation lauded by many residents, the neighbourhood watch, insists members should be apolitical when donning the watch's black shirts, Siyamtanda Capa and Jan Gerber report from the central Karoo.
"Politics in the neighbourhood watch is not allowed," said John Jacobs, one of the three members of the Beaufort West neighbourhood watch who spoke to News24 on Saturday.
Jacobs is a Patriotic Alliance (PA) supporter. His colleague, Angus Plaatjies, is a DA man, and Gerrit Bailey, the chairperson of the neighbourhood watch, is a staunch ANC supporter, even though he thinks there's room for the ANC government's police minister, Bheki Cele, to improve.
"Even in the neighbourhood watch, we don't talk politics. We come and do our work," said Bailey.
If politics were allowed in the neighbourhood watch, Jacobs said, political parties would want to take the credit for what they do.
"We said politics in the neighbourhood watch is not allowed, otherwise we will fight each other. If you want to talk politics please go outside. If anyone starts talking about politics, we tell them to go."
Jacobs added: "It's not for the politics. It's for the community."
The Beaufort West community has been plagued by a struggling municipality for years.
In September 2021, shortly before the 2021 municipal elections, the Western Cape Department of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning intervened in terms of Section 139 of the Constitution, leading to a financial recovery plan for Beaufort West.
The 2021 municipal elections haven't brought an improvement — quite the contrary. The PA, which governs the municipality along with the ANC and Karoo Democratic Force, has been playing mayoral musical chairs.
In February, the municipality, which includes Merweville, Murraysburg and Nelspoort, got its fifth mayor since 2021.
This state of affairs hasn't endeared the PA and its leader, Gayton McKenzie, to several of the residents News24 had spoken to.
And, unsurprisingly, a revolving-door policy with mayors isn't exactly conducive to improved governance.
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According to an Auditor-General (AG) report from June last year, the Beaufort West municipality received a qualified audit opinion.
Good Governance Africa's Governance South Africa Index for 2024 ranks Beaufort West as 70th out of 99 small-town local municipalities and ranks it 161st out of 205 municipalities nationwide. However, only one municipality – Kannaland – has a worse rating than Beaufort West.
Abrieen Janewarie, from Essopville, said he was fed up with the unstable coalition government.
He said:
"We have too many political parties, and it disrupts the town; the municipality isn't doing much, and that is a fact for a lot of people in our town."
Asked about his views on the PA making a play on the Western Cape, Janewarie said: "The DA has been running the Western Cape and the province and it is in a good place. There are some positives that Gayton did but there are some things that he didn't deliver on. I think he should leave the Western Cape to the DA".
Even a basic municipal function, like billing for water and electricity, has residents up in arms.
Frustrated by the issues, Hannes van der Berg's wife, Ilmarie, started a WhatsApp group to address the situation. In less than 24 hours, scores of residents had joined but backed out when the objection was to be submitted.
He said residents feared they would be targeted and their electricity and water accounts would be blocked.
"The threat at the moment is that the minute you don't pay your electricity or water bill, you are cut off or they prevent you from buying water and electricity. They block your account. I think that is what they fear."
He explained that he had also been affected when his electricity bill was at more than R15 000 in December. It's usually around R4 000. He said the inflated bill was the result of "estimations" of which most residents were victims. He was also made to pay a "reconnection" fee. Van der Berg refused to pay the amount and threatened the municipality with legal action.
Van der Berg said he was hopeful that the elections would bring about change.
He said:
Asked if the political parties that put up their hands in the election would be suitable to take over, Van der Berg said: "I don't know. I wish I could say so. Whether we are able to put it together at the end of the day, I don't know.
"By voting for the current government, you are saying you are happy. We all would like to see a change. If the ANC government would rule for another five years, I'm afraid South Africa is done," Van der Berg said.
But Lindiwe Louw from KwaMandlenkosi is not ready to give up on the ANC, saying she can't trust anyone else with her vote.
"All the political parties are liars, the ANC and all the new parties. They are all dishonest. I will die an ANC member and I will be buried as an ANC member," Louw said.
Louw describes Beaufort West as being under siege.
"Our children are breaking into our homes".
Vanessa van Vuuren is also concerned about crime in Beaufort West.
While she originally hails from Beaufort West, she spent 17 years elsewhere. Two years ago, she returned.
"I came back because it is my birth town. I like it here. It's nice and quiet. I'm not a city person."
She owns the Waterwiel Bakhuis, a purple Cape Dutch house on the main road, Donkin Street, selling curios and locals' artworks, and serving traditional Karoo culinary treats.
She said:
According to 2021 census data, Beaufort West had an unemployment level of 22.4% in 2020, and this is according to the narrow definition of unemployment, meaning the percentage of people who are able to work but unable to find employment, excluding those who have given up trying to find work.
In May 2016, then-president Jacob Zuma spoke about unemployment when he visited Beaufort West on the occasion of opening a Youth Hub in KwaMandlenkosi.
"Ladies and gentlemen, as government, the challenges facing the youth, such as unemployment, are our… major problem and major concern," Zuma said at the time, as broadcast by the SABC.
The Youth Hub was a project by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to "serve as a recreation and education centre to the youth in the area as part of promoting rural development", according to the statement sent out years ago.
It comprises an amphitheatre, swimming pool, gymnasium and an astroturf hockey field.
"The swimming pool is half Olympic size and is expected to host swimming clubs and competitive galas for the region. Hopefully, the next generation of Chad le Closes and Penny Heynses will come from this area," said Zuma, back in the day.
However, when News24 was shown around there on Saturday, the next generation of Chad le Closes and Penny Heynses wasn't practising for future glory there.
How could they? The pool was empty. And by the looks of it, it has been for a while.
The gym was closed, as it is most of the time, we were told. The hockey field looks unkept, with several holes in the fence around it and goats milling about. News24's arrival at the amphitheatre disturbed a man's slumber. He skulked off as we talked to Lilitha Sondara, who pointed to the decay and lost potential of the Youth Hub.
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Yet, he remembers Zuma's visit to his hometown fondly, to the extent that the 22-year-old intends to draw his first cross on a national and provincial ballot behind Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) on 29 May.
While the Youth Hub was quiet, a decomposing white elephant, a nearby sport facility was in use for an activity you'll find on any Saturday afternoon in any city, town or village in any country. The universal language of football was spoken on a blazing hot Saturday afternoon when Beaufort West's local team took on Prince Albert.
Attending the match was Granwill Pienaar, head coach of local youth team Prince Valley, which was due to play Liverpool FC. Not the Liverpool FC from Liverpool in the UK, but the Liverpool FC from Leeu-Gamka.
Pienaar also runs Kicking Future Stars, a soccer coaching clinic, and proudly spoke about how he would take one of the kids he coaches there to Cape Town on Monday for a trial with Ubuntu Football Academy.
"We are never shy of producing talent in the Karoo," he said.
But it is about more than having fun on a Saturday afternoon and maybe getting someone into a professional team.
He credits the beautiful game for setting his life on a positive path, and through his work, intends to do the same for the children in his community.
"Football, for me, was a life changer," said Pienaar.
"I believe that football is a vehicle to develop a sustainable country."
While Jacobs, Plaatjies and Bailey could have chosen to spend their Saturday afternoon watching football, they gathered at a truck stop on the outskirts of the town, which they described as a crime hotspot.
When trucks stop there, criminals will appear from behind a vibracrete wall next to the road, cut the tarps covering the goods and make off with their loot. But not when the neighbourhood watch is around, they said.
Jacobs, who is the chairperson of the watch's chapter in Uitskud, said:
The neighbourhood watch comprises 18 men who joined after the dormant body was resuscitated a short while after the July 2021 unrest.
Bailey said the people in Beaufort West were living in fear and they decided that "enough was enough".
Jacobs added: "If we said: 'No, man, it's not our problem,' someone could die!"
"We, as the neighbourhood watch, try our best to protect our town. We will not let our town go down."
