SIBA POOE’S
ACERBIC
VOLUME1
THE FUTURE OF HEBRON IS “BLEAK”OR SHALL I SAY THE “PROSPECTS ARE DARK”
Introduction
In writing this piece of work, I needed more time than I can spare and more literary skill than I possess, it began as something that passed through my mind and then flowed through my senses and I have titled this piece of work, “Acerbic” because as you take a visual walk upon it, you will notice that I have mentioned names of people who are perceived to be holding higher positions in our village, people who are highly elevated above the lay public, people who are “supposed” to be making things happen in our village but aren’t, and as soon as what I wrote reaches the attention of many people in this village, a lot of reactions will be stirred emanating from different interpretations, because what is written in here is quite provocative, daring and foments nothing but trouble, but I felt inclined to write this because I am part of the lay public and the poor, and I will always be an advocate of the poor, notwithstanding the fact that I am not quite fond of being impoverished.
One cannot begin to anticipate or rather prognosticate the future of our village in the next 5 years, simply because there are a lot of factors which would obscure one’s own view, factors which hinder our progress as a village, and from my own vantage point I do not think we are going forward as a village in terms of development as a village, by development I mean all aspects of development, let it be Education, Infrastructure, levels of living etc. I would be lying if I were to also say that we are stagnant because what I see is nothing but regression, and I will provide clarity as this piece of work evolves.
In comparison to other adjacent places, saying Hebron is underdeveloped would be an understatement, but I would rather use the words sub-standard and squalid to describe our villages conditions, hearsay had made me to believe that there are millions of rands which are available, the money that belongs to Bakwena-Ba-Mogopa, I just hope and pray that the funds available do not fall onto the wrong hands.
Leadership
The conditions of our village would have been much better had it not been due to the poverty of leadership, Power-hunger and opportunism in this village, Hebron will never be the promise-land for as long as we are being led by the very same people who are leading us today, and I am well aware that not all of them are at fault, but in the spirit of collective responsibilities, if one of is guilty, then all are guilty. And there are people who would use the smoke-screen method to try and deceive the masses into believing that they want what is in the best interest of the people but deep inside knowing that they just want to fill their own pockets at the expense of the poor masses. This kind of people are good at convincing people that they want what’s best for Hebron and its residents, if they know that the truth would just drag them into disrepute, they would rather lie to the masses, they lie too many times, up to a point where they themselves start believing that what they are saying is true, they rationalize a lot, in the psychological realm, “Rationalization” is a trick the mind has of allowing us to evade the pain of facing our real motive by supplying a reason for our behaviour, which has all the appearances of being entirely satisfactory.
Hebron residents are bleeding from the injustices perpetrated by their own leaders, the leaders are just there to serve their own interests, there aren’t any programs which are being put in place in order to assist the youth of this village, and if they are there then there is a serious lack of transparency, yet we have the ANC youth league of which the chairperson is Aobakwe Pirwe, what I know is that under this man’s leadership, the youth league of Hebron has dichotomised into two, resulting into the youth league of Aobakwe and the youth league of Komane Kgonoti, under the auspices of David Masike, the former and the latter youth league leaders should be focusing on challenges facing the youth of Hebron, but they are too blinded by their greed for power to a point were they overlook serious issues, they would rather have two ANCYL sub-branches in the absence of a main branch, I thought “Unity was power”, but in their context, “Separation is key”. I suggest that they settle their own squabbles and then start working together again in order to reach a common ground.
As to our Councillor Mr Oupa Marapyane, I sympathise with the man because since he ascended into his position or shall I say, since he took over from his predecessor, Councillor More, the man has not achieved a lot, I am not implying that Councillor More achieved a lot or had achieved at all, it is just that, during Councillor More’s Term, I was still a novice in politics, my aim is not lambast anyone but to merely crystallize my thoughts on paper about events and happenings which have obtruded themselves upon my notice, I do hold Mr Marapyane in greater regard, but I feel that I need to be critical and not romantic with him. I mean “A man must not swallow his cough because he fears to disturb others”. During Mr Marapyane’s tenure, we have managed to receive 4 huge street lights and the renovation of Mmanotshe Moduane Sports complex, even if I feel like what Madibeng is trying to do with the sports complex is a bit absurd, how can you try to privatize public facilities? Before the renovation, everyone had access to those facilities but now kids have to pay in order to gain access to utilise those resources, Madibeng just needs a serious shuffling of leadership, because clearly, they are in a leadership crisis. But going back to Mr Marapyane, I have one question for the man, “What type of legacy would you want to bequeath to posterity”? because him holding this position is like pouring water off a duck’s back, I hope reading this would serve as a wake up call for you to pull up your socks, I think you should start by attending most of the events which are concerning anything to do with this village because your duty is not only to ensure that we have enough infrastructure but your duties are quite manifold, you must remember that you are accountable to the people, this very same people are the ones who have cast their votes for you with a view that you can twist Hebron around, you must remember that our votes are not cheap. What is needed is for you to devise a strategy that will enable you to detect or rather diagnose the minor symptoms of the challenges facing our village, and then what would be needed is the unmasking of the cause of the symptom, and I can assure you that, after doing that, you would have grabbed the bull by its horn, without being a Zulu native. I mean why should we put a poultice on the cheek when we can take out the tooth? Treating the symptom and abandoning the cause will not assist us in anyway, we as Hebronites, need to determine the soil in which we can find the roots of the maladjustments.
“Opportunism” why is it that I’m so fond of this word? Perhaps it is because I am the son of the Hebron soil, perhaps it is because I live in a village infested by opportunists, let us take for example, the money that the tribal authorities have announced that they are in possession of, they say the money belongs to Bakwena-Ba-Mogopa. Since such announcement, more and more opportunists are beginning to be actively involved in local politics, and the poor run the risk of being exploited by the leaders, for example, the project of graveyard fencing and renovations, people were employed to do the work and were reduced to a meagre R750.00 per fort-night, what appears to be more appalling is the fact that , there are two types of payments which are; Wage and Salary, a wage is a payment on a weekly basis and a Salary is a remuneration on a monthly basis, then the one on a fort-night basis is sheer exploitation, two of the men who were Spear-heading the tenders are Mr Phalatse and Mr Victor Molefe, the latter is famous of presenting “Compound Interest” in a more fashionable manner, my question is, what is in it for this two men, I guess I can never make conjectural allegations on the two men because the information I have about the tender, is a bit sketchy, therefore I will move to other issues which do not sit well with me pertaining this capably beautiful village of ours.
Getting to the sporting realm, I will start with the formation of RHEKFA (Rabokala, Hebron, Kgabalatsane, Football Association) which I am in paper, its chairperson but in practice I am not, RHEKFA was a brilliant initiative by Mr Sam “Chillies Mathabe to put kids of this 3 villages off the streets, drugs, etc. as if SMS Academy is not doing that, but why is the man coming with this initiative now after being informed of the money in the hands of the CPA? And then asked for sponsorship from them, I perceive this to be sheer opportunism, and the man would rationalize it by saying that he wants to take the kids out of the street, that’s not true, the man saw this opportunity to fulfil his sentimental needs, he knew that doing this would put him in a much more favourable light before the eyes of the society, to me this is nothing but attention seeking syndrome, I do not mean of course that he is unconscious of the fact that he is seeking attention, but he is unconscious of the fact that attention seeking is his dominating factor in coming up with this initiative, if he really wanted to assist the kids, he would have done it without the knowledge of the available funds.
Under this very realm there’s another man who calls himself John in serious events and on the street he is commonly known as Mofinki, a man as opportunistic as they come, I remember one time in a RHEKFA meeting, we asked him to give us the SAFA team sheets as he was the only one who had them and he agreed, then he went to make a huge bunch of team sheets and the whole season’s fixture and wanted to charge us R2 for each paper, I mean first and foremost, the fixture was unsolicited and he never informed us beforehand that the team sheets would cost us, because if he did, we would have told him that we just need one copy and we will make our own duplicates, and one other thing that the man is, is that he’s a Power-monger, the man loves power to a point where he would do anything to try discredit me and lead me into resigning from my chair. But he could never win because I am as thick-skinned as they come, the reason why I distanced myself from RHEKFA is that I did not want to fall into Mr Mathabe’s Ploy.
The other person that I have been trying to muster enough audacity to be able to chastise, is one Morena called Sello Abinaar Jingles Malao who have an annual Soccer tournament on the 16th of December by the name of Jingles Malao Soccer tournament and also advertises ABSA, his face is on the ABSA billboard in Midrand, what I know about the man is that, he has this tournament for self-aggrandizement purposes, he is just an attention seeking man, hiding behind the cloak of benevolence, he is just a face and behind the face lurks greater nastiness, the man is suffering from attention seeking disorder along with his friend indeed, Mr Collen Monageng who is claiming to be a politician and who is forever uttering English, but quite frankly, the man is intellectually young and not growing, let alone the fact that he is politically illiterate.
CONCLUSION
It is only a matter of time that we as the people of Hebron, start uniting into making Hebron a conducive environment for ourselves and for the future generations, working together we cannot change Hebron, but I can assure you that we can make a contribution towards changing it, the youth must start being proactive in exploiting the opportunities that the world has in store for young people and start joining and even forming organisations like SMS which will give you the competitive edge and also start reviving the poetry sessions, Form your own writing forums and make things happen in this village of ours. I wrote this with a bruised heart that throbs painfully but writing this piece of work would’nt have been possible without all the people who play a huge role in my life, I would like to thank my Family, Friends, guys from fishz Car wash, Lindokuhle Gamede and Boipelo Ntoane for being the pillar of my strength because without you, writing this would not have been within the realms of possibility. To respond Please send an e-mail to or contact me on 0840638319