The Times
*Thousands of fans face World Cup blackout* /Remote villages have no TV signal, electricity/ *Sipho Masondo, The Times, Johannesburg, 7 June 2010*As soccer fever grips South Africa, four Limpopo villages have been forgotten.
There will be little in the way of World Cup viewing in Mafarafara, Mahlatsi, Taung and Thokomane, under the jurisdiction of the Greater Tubatse municipality, in Burgersfort.
The remote villages, which are home to thousands of people, have been bypassed by development. They are not electrified and cannot receive television signals because they are in the foothills of the imposing Makwali and Pakaneng mountains.
The desperately poor villagers are not the only ones in the district facing a World Cup blackout.
Greater Tubatse municipal manager Simon Malepeng said about 80% of the region's 66000 households cannot receive television transmissions. Many, he said, cannot even receive radio broadcasts.
"We have been engaging with the SABC and Sentech [signal provider to the public broadcaster]. A bit has been done by the SABC and Sentech as far as radio is concerned."
Malepeng said the municipality has arranged one public viewing site for villagers, at Moroke. But this is unlikely to be much of a consolation because Moroke is about 150km away.
SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said the broadcaster had recently installed low-power transmitters in a handful of rural communities in inhospitable areas in Northern Cape and Limpopo, but the budget was not sufficient to pay for coverage for all communities.
Providing signals was Sentech's job, Kganyago added.But Sentech will not take the blame for overlooking villages in the Greater Tubatse area. Its mandate, said its spokesman, Nthabeleng Mokitimi, was to provide signals to areas specified by the public broadcaster.
Many of the villagers will be able to listen to World Cup matches on SABC's Thobela FM, but for some even that is a luxury because the mountains, towering hundreds of metres above them, block signals.
Lawrence Mdluli, 19, of Mafarafara, loves soccer - and Bafana Bafana in particular - but he is one of the many fans in the area who will not be able to watch the national team fight for the Cup.
"I love soccer, too much. I want to see the World Cup, but I don't know what I will do,'' he said.
Mdluli, whose family does not have a television, told The Times that his family would have saved for a set if they had access to the airwaves and electricity.
His friend, Thushego Rachoshi, 20, said he would try to watch the matches at a local tavern that has a satellite dish, a decoder and a generator.
Malepeng said there was a huge electricity-supply backlog in the region."About 27000 households in our municipal area don't have electricity. It's probably the biggest backlog in the country. We don't have a licence to dispense electricity, but Eskom told us that they don't have capacity. Much of their capacity is reserved for the mines around this region."
But lack of electricity and access to the World Cup are just some of the problems facing the villagers - there is an acute shortage of housing, roads and clinics.
While waiting for the fruits of democracy, elderly Alfred Mdluli, from Mafarafara, might lose his leg. Because of the rough terrain and gravel roads, Mafarafara, Thokomane and Mahlatsi are serviced by a mobile clinic in Taung.
To get to Taung, Mdluli, a former miner who has had a leg infection for several months, has to cross the Tubatse River, which does not have a bridge. Ironically, Mdluli's makeshift, self-made cable car - which he set up years ago to help women and children cross the river to get to the clinic - will not save him. To get to the river, Mdluli has to be carried then lifted onto the cable car.
"What can I do? I will probably die here, or I will just have my leg amputated. This is the story of our lives - the ANC government doesn't care about us. They only care when we have to vote for them."
Mdluli, like most of the people in the region, lives in a makeshift home constructed of clay bricks. The family has to use a communal tap and a pit latrine.
Co-operative governance MEC Soviet Legkanyane said there was a shortfall of 385000 houses in the province.
Lekganyane's spokesman, Clyson Monyale, said most areas in Tubatse had been earmarked for development.
"There are studies currently going on. Those informal settlements were not planned. People just settled there," he said.
Roads and transport MEC Pinky Kekana had not respond to requests for comment by the time of going to press.
DA MP Herman Groenewald said he was shocked that, after 16 years of democracy, people were still living in such conditions:
"Those people are being stripped of their human dignity. The Zuma administration must prioritise rural development. Most of this country's people live in rural areas."
From: *http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article492701.ece/Thousands-of-fans-face-World-Cup-blackout*
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