Yesterday's decision to reincorporate Khutsong, and with it the rest of the Merafong municipality, into Gauteng is a victory for persistence over power-induced arrogance.

Yesterday's decision to reincorporate Khutsong, and with it the rest of the Merafong municipality, into Gauteng is a victory for persistence over power-induced arrogance.

The political elite will want us to believe otherwise, but the people of Khutsong are where they are not because of the benevolence of the party hacks but because of the concept of people's power being deployed optimally.

It is also another persuasive argument against a political system that requires public representatives to bow before the party even at the expense of the voters.

The councillors, members of the provincial and national legislatures should hang their heads in shame.

Things did not need to get where they are. People have died. Property was damaged and young lives destroyed because of the school boycott and being sucked into criminality in the misguided belief that it was the best way to express a political opinion.

All this because the elite forgot that they derived their power from the people.

It is not a decision of a "new" or "old" ANC. None of the ANC leaders past or present spoke out against the decision. They all left it to the SA Communist Party to speak out. Even then, this was left to a small group of communists to wage that struggle. The people of Khutsong have been their own liberators.