Interviews
Grants
Of the several thousand people inhabiting the Maandagshoek community, the vast majority survive on state grants and small-scale farming. One female resident is adamant that the impact of child grants has destroyed their culture. She blames former South African president Thabo Mbeki for helping "the children who bear children, as to us it does not help … our culture has been destroyed. Children get grants and we don't." A physically disabled resident feels that although the disabled now receive disability grants "they don't get jobs which means they are still discriminated [against]." Of the estimated population of almost 30,000 in Rammolutsi, a considerable portion consists of pensioners, women and children and most survive predominantly on state welfare/pension/social grants and remuneration from relatives working outside the community. Many Sebokeng residents rely on government grants as their only means of survival since industrial 'restructuring' and privatization resulted in a huge increase in the levels of general unemployment from 1994 onwards. Some residents, in agreement with those of Maandagshoek, feel that the child grants have created some sort of dependency. More babies are being born for the purpose of getting the grant. "…because if a person is not working she just gets a baby and she gets R170, she gets a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) house then it's fine. But it's not solving the problem." A similar problem occurs where residents with HIV/AIDS allow their CD4 cell count to drop by not taking their treatment (Antiretroviral - ARVs) in order to continue receiving grants.An interview with Simon Siloane, who is physically disabled and unemployed, by Dale McKinley and Ahmed Veriava.
Date: June 9, 2007An interview with Flora Mpusi and Flora Makwa, both elderly women in Chief Vilakazi’s household, by Dale McKinley and Ahmed Veriava.
Date: June 11, 2007An interview with unemployed worker and lifelong Rammolutsi resident Mokete Tsolotlo by Dale McKinley and Ahmed Veriava.
Date: July 23, 2007An interview with pensioner Molefi John Phasha of Rammolutsi by Dale McKinley and Ahmed Veriava.
Date: July 24, 2007Part one of the interview with Gabriel Mashakhale, pastor of the local branch of the Apostolic Church and ex-ward councillor in Rammolutsi, by Dale McKinley and Ahmed Veriava.
Date: July 24, 2007Part two of the interview with Gabriel Mashakhale, pastor of the local branch of the Apostolic Church and ex-ward councillor in Rammolutsi, by Dale McKinley and Ahmed Veriava.
Date: July 24, 2007This interview with Ouma Ngelele, who runs a home for 18 orphans and abused children in her 5-room shack and is wholly supported by sympathetic local businesses and a white church in town, along with a few child grants, was conducted by Dale McKinley and Ahmed Veriava in Rammolutsi in 2007 as part of the South African History Archive's Alternative History Project, titled 'Forgotten Voices in the Present'.