Ashley Green-Thompson Ashley Green-Thompson
Ratanda is a township south of Heidelberg at the edge of Gauteng province. Apparently, the name is derived from the Sotho (rata) and Zulu (thanda) words meaning love. It made the news recently for the protests at the perennial absence of municipal water. After months of dry taps and community agitation demanding action by government, the people’s patience ran out, and the mayor’s house was burnt down. The provincial premier dropped everything and came to town, and within 24 hours water was restored.
The world watched as the March and March movement mobilised South Africans in anti-migrant protests. Their demand was for government to immediately identify and deport undocumented foreign nationals, who they blamed for the hardships endured by poor black communities. The cause of extreme unemployment, bad service delivery, constrained education and health systems, poverty and inequality, and crime was placed firmly at the door of migrants. Vigilante-type action against migrants heightened the tensions associated with the protests as ordinary citizens took it upon themselves to check the legal status of migrants (and sometimes South Africans who looked different). The memory of apartheid’s dompas era loomed large. They set deadlines for deportation, with implied threats of violence and social disruption if not met.
