Former president Thabo Mbeki once said SA is a country of two nations, with one for the poor and predominantly black, with another for the rich and predominantly white. But I am of the opinion that his two nations definition needs to be further expanded.

It should then be expanded that the predominantly black nation doesn’t have municipal by-laws, and has continued service delivery interruptions. Furthermore, the rich nation, besides being predominantly white, also has politicians and has municipal by-laws, with less interrupted service delivery.

Politicians will continue to make reference to the poor or uplifting poor people’s living conditions but there’s never any sign of improving the conditions of poor people.

Townships and rural people are used to the non-existence of basic services and by-laws. It’s considered normal to have loud music during parties and at shebeens and pubs, but municipal by-laws don’t allow such disturbance of peace in suburbs.

Townships and rural folks have been reconditioned to understand that it’s normal for power and water outages to be restored after some days, unlike within hours in suburbs.

Had black politicians stayed with the poor, sharing their riches with the poor, the poor too could have shared their poverty with them. Their presence in poor areas could help fast-track service delivery.

Black politicians are good in blaming everything on apartheid, overlooking the fact that their migration to former whites-only areas contributed to underdevelopment of predominantly black areas.

If a leader of a pro-poor political party, say EFF or SACP, lives in a black area, complaints against service delivery interruptions by such a leader will result in prompt response by the authorities.

Also, corrupt leaders always intercept services intended for the poor. If we can denounce apartheid leaders because apartheid was a crime against humanity, then we must also denounce corrupt leaders and regard corruption as crime against humanity.

Phepisi Radipere, Ga-Ramokadi-kadi, Limpopo