OPINION | Undoing the legacy of apartheid, one asbestos roof at a time

The Limpopo provincial government is replacing asbestos roofs on 5,000 homes in the province. 

In 2008, the national government announced the prohibition of the use, manufacturing, import and export of asbestos and asbestos-containing materials.

Two years ago, it promulgated the Asbestos Abatement Regulations to encourage employers to provide safer working environments where asbestos is present.

Our government has gone a step further to eradicate it in roofing to correct apartheid wrongs and safeguard lives.

It has become evident that as the quality of these roofs deteriorate, the material becomes extremely hazardous to occupants.

The risks of airborne asbestos fibre, and the implications thereof, were highlighted in the 1930s, with explicit links to certain cancers established in South Africa in the 1960s.

Inroads such as the Limpopo project are just some of the important efforts being undertaken to undo apartheid legacies.

When this government took over in 1994, it had the unenviable duty to undo decades of unrelenting, malicious, systematic, institutionalised, state-funded, organised and manifested hatred against a people.

It faced a system designed, applied and operated for more than 300 years of colonialism, and decades of racial segregation. It has worked hard since the dawn of democracy to right these wrongs.

What should be brought to light, however, is that it has had to maintain governance, while travelling back in time to undo decades of apartheid grime embedded into the system, the economy and, in some cases, our conscience.

This despite naysayers who peddle a narrative that paints our government as one that started its administration on a clean slate, a view that effectively ignores the impact of apartheid.

In some circles, one can quickly lose credibility if one points to apartheid rule continuing to play a role in where we find ourselves as a country.

Comments that shine a light on this ruthless regime and how its institutionalised undertones still exist in 2023, are gradually but surely making their way to being viewed as lazy and lacking in creative solution-based thinking.

“Apartheid was so long ago”, “Get over it already”, “You have had so much time to correct things” or “Blame your black leaders”.

Should we easily forget? Would it be prudent to listen to those who belittle the brutal system?

It is simplistic to assume 30 years of democracy could undo what this nation has gone through, especially since we nobly chose to forgive our oppressors and hoped they would rebuild with us.

Remains of the previous regime live with us.

They’re evident in defragmented families manufactured by a forced migrant work system that many of our people had to bear. Broken families and therefore broken communities are not an inherently African or black trait, they are merely a terrible gift left to us by an evil state.

Incidents wherein a white person spews degrading racial slurs at a black person, even to children otherwise untainted by the apartheid period, are swiftly losing their shock value.

Inequality, poverty and unemployment remain the three horsemenplaguing us to this day.

But in no way does this downplay the effects of current corruption on our nation.

Mismanagement of funds, ill and unaccountable spending by spheres of government and greed — the impact of these is not only heard in spoken words, it is real in every way. Especially for those living from rand to rand.

It is to be rejected in the strongest terms and its perpetrators must face the law without compromise.

There have been plenty of errors and moments of ignorance by our government, but in reality, it has accomplished much.

It has opened the door to many wealthy black South Africans. More citizens now receive quality education, with free higher education for the poor a feather in its cap.

Many poor South Africans have been able to raise their children to play meaningful roles in society because of social grants.

To the victims of racial attacks who have been vindicated because the law has made perpetrators account, this government works.

Despite residential segregation, separate development and the creation of rural slums, it has made strides to create decent human settlement areas closer to economic hubs.

The Limpopo government has so far assisted close to 400 of the targeted 1,500 households in the Seshego area. This forms part of the first leg of the provincial asbestos roofing removal project from the more than 5,000 houses.

This perhaps is the crux of it: that for many who are at the bottom of the barrel, but prioritised by our government, the state is at work.

Yes, people complain about the government not handling things the way they would prefer, but it is their government — they have ownership of it and therefore a right to demand improvement.

We have had to go backwards to go forward.

— Basikopo Makamu is MEC of co-operative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs (CoGHSTA) in Limpopo.