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02/22/2006:

"Townships in revolt as ANC fails to live up to its promises"

...The ruling party is facing a serious and occasionally violent revolt in downtrodden communities, resulting in no-go areas for its members. Councillors have been beaten, shot and burned out of their homes. Party meetings have been ambushed. Several local branches have disbanded or gone underground.

"It is not safe for me. I cannot go back in the current climate," said Papi Tselane, 44, one of 14 ANC councillors forced to flee the township of Khutsong after a mob destroyed their houses. The councillors are living in a mining compound. Several councillors have stepped down, said Bobo Ndlakuza, the ANC's election coordinator for Merafong municipality, which includes Khutsong. "Some members think it is not worth their lives and just lie low."

The party is being targeted in what was its heartland, the sprawls of shacks and low-cost homes where millions of impoverished black people live.

The cause of unrest is economic. People are fed up waiting for jobs and basic services such as electricity, clean water and sanitation. The service delivery protests, as they are known, flared last year and have grown in frequency and passion in the run-up to local elections on March 1. Khutsong, a township of 170,000, 40 miles from Johannesburg, has seen some of the worst trouble.
guardian.co.uk