Opinion
The recent announcement of Dr Nasiphi Moya as the mayoral candidate for ActionSA for the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality signals the beginning of another intense local government election season, and a renewed scramble for the votes of communities such as Hammanskraal and Temba.
As always, political parties are preparing glossy manifestos, polished slogans, and campaign promises to persuade voters that they hold the solution to the daily struggles of ordinary people. Yet one fundamental question is rarely asked: have politicians genuinely consulted the people about what they truly want to improve their livelihoods and for their future?
For decades, communities have been promised water, electricity, housing, roads, and sanitation, services that are not gifts from politicians, but constitutional obligations of government. Presenting basic service delivery as an act of political generosity is disingenuous. Access to water, energy, shelter, sanitation, and dignified living conditions are fundamental human rights, not campaign rewards to be exchanged for votes.
The people of Temba deserve far more than recycled promises and temporary election rhetoric. What the community seeks is not merely service delivery, but restoration, recognition, dignity, and long-term transformation.
The real manifesto of the people of Temba may be captured in ten urgent priorities.
1. Recognition of the Constitutional Right to Dignity
At the heart of the community’s aspirations lies the demand for dignity. Development must move beyond infrastructure and statistics toward restoring human worth. Communities should not continue to live in conditions that communicate abandonment, exclusion, and invisibility.
The prolonged water crisis has deprived the people of Temba of their dignity, reducing many to what Hendrik Verwoerd once described as “hewers of wood and drawers of water.” Residents are forced to chase after water trucks daily, the elderly carrying heavy water containers over long distances. For children and the elderly, especially, this has become a painful and exhausting lived experience.
2. Recognition of Individual and Community Identity
The people of Temba seek recognition of their identity, history, and contribution to the broader social fabric of Tshwane. Communities flourish when they are seen not merely as voting blocs, but as people with culture, memory, and collective aspirations.
Temba is a crucible of political resistance and intellectual activism. It contributed significantly to the rise of Black Consciousness, Black Theology, and workers’ rights movements during the 1970s. The Black People’s Convention was founded at St Peter’s Seminary and was associated with freedom fighters and intellectuals such as Winnie Kgware, Steve Biko, and Onkgopotse Tiro. The area hosted early SASO conferences and became a centre of resistance against the homeland system.
3. Reclaiming Temba’s Heritage and Cultural Identity
Temba is more than a township; it is a space of cultural meaning and historical significance. The preservation of heritage sites, indigenous knowledge systems, local arts, and cultural institutions must become central to community development.
One of Temba’s most prominent heritage landmarks, St Peter’s Seminary, was destroyed following the failed Business Processing Centre project initiated during the tenure of former Tshwane Mayor Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. The destruction of the seminary represented not only the loss of an important historical structure but also the erosion of a critical symbol of Black intellectual, theological, and political consciousness in South Africa. That heritage site must be rebuilt and restored as part of reclaiming the community’s historical memory and cultural identity.
Temba nurtured world-class artists, writers, and intellectuals, including Lucky Sibiya, Brenda Fassie, Bongani Madondo, Justice Malala, Gaogalelwe Tiro, and Sello Galane. It was a cultural melting pot of northern Gauteng and a centre of artistic, literary, and intellectual expression that shaped generations far beyond Hammanskraal.
4. Restoring Temba as a College Town
Education remains one of the most powerful instruments of social mobility. Temba must reclaim its identity as a centre of learning and youth development. The return of colleges, technical training centres, skills academies, and higher education opportunities would stimulate both the local economy and social renewal.
At its height, Temba was a national study destination. It hosted the only training centre for Black policemen, three theology schools, a nursing college, leading Catholic schools, a business centre for Black entrepreneurs, and an industrial park that facilitated manufacturing and skills transfer. A revived education ecosystem could transform Temba into a vibrant student and knowledge community capable of attracting investment, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
5. Respect for Cultural and Spiritual Spaces
Development should never come at the expense of sacred, spiritual, or cultural spaces. Communities require places of reflection, worship, healing, and traditional practice that strengthen social cohesion and moral regeneration.
The Temba Cemetery, as a centre of sacred memory and ancestral heritage, has been neglected for far too long. Overgrown grass, broken perimeter fencing, and deteriorating conditions have compromised both the dignity and safety of families who wish to honour their loved ones and ancestors. A community that cannot properly preserve its spaces of remembrance risks losing its connection to history and identity.
Many historic churches and spiritual institutions are increasingly surrounded and undermined by taverns and shebeens operating in defiance of municipal by-laws. In some parts of the township, there are now more taverns than schools, churches, or libraries. Teenage drinking, substance abuse, and early pregnancies have become more prevalent as cultural and spiritual spaces deteriorate.
The moral and social regeneration of Temba requires deliberate restoration and protection of sacred spaces, cultural institutions, cemeteries, churches, and community centres. Development must not only build infrastructure but also preserve the spiritual and cultural foundations that hold communities together.
6. Sports and Recreation for Healthy Living
Young people need safe and accessible recreational spaces that promote health, discipline, and talent development. Investment in sports fields, community centres, libraries, arts facilities, and parks is an investment in social stability and future leadership.
Hammanskraal United was once nationally recognised, and players such as Kalamazoo Mokone and Thomas “Who’s Fooling Who” Hlogwane began their football journeys in Temba. Today, schools and youth clubs struggle to access facilities where young talent can be nurtured and protected from drugs and alcohol.
7. Promotion of Health and Wellness
The future of Temba cannot be separated from the physical and mental wellness of its people. Community wellness programmes, mental health support, substance abuse interventions, and youth counselling services are no longer optional; they are essential.
The overabundance of drugs, alcohol abuse, and social decay has pushed health and wellness into the background, particularly among young people.
8. A Crime and GBV-Free Temba
Residents want safer streets, safer homes, and safer schools. The fight against crime and gender-based violence must become a societal priority supported by stronger law enforcement, community partnerships, and social interventions.
Equally important is confronting the over-concentration of alcohol outlets that continue to expose many young people to addiction, violence, and social decay. Municipal by-laws must limit the uncontrolled expansion of taverns and shebeens, while the visible law-enforcement presence must be strengthened.
9. Proper Roads, Rail and Public Transport
A functioning transport system is central to economic inclusion. Temba requires properly tarred roads, reliable public transport, and stronger rail connectivity linking residents to employment opportunities, educational institutions, and economic hubs across Tshwane and Gauteng.
Transport infrastructure is not simply about movement; it is about access, opportunity, and dignity. Temba remains one of the few historic townships around Pretoria without an active rail connection to the city, despite existing infrastructure. What is lacking is political will.
10. Reopening the Babelegi Industrial Park
Shopping malls and government jobs alone cannot solve unemployment in Hammanskraal. Ownership of spaza shops must return to local hands to create sustainable employment. Most urgently, the revitalisation of the Babelegi Industrial Park must take priority.
Once a thriving industrial centre, Babelegi represented employment, enterprise, manufacturing, and hope for thousands of families. Its revival could create opportunities for more than 20,000 people, particularly young people seeking jobs, skills development, and entrepreneurial participation.
The future of Temba depends not only on social grants and municipal programmes, but on rebuilding a productive local economy capable of restoring self-reliance and community pride.
Beyond Elections
The people of Temba are no longer asking merely for promises. They are demanding partnership, inclusion, and genuine transformation. Elections should not only be moments when politicians speak to communities, but also when communities define the developmental agenda themselves.
The true manifesto for Temba is not simply about winning votes. It is about reclaiming dignity, identity, education, safety, culture, mobility, wellness, and economic opportunity.
The question for every political party contesting the next local government election is simple: will they continue campaigning on outdated promises of basic services, or will they embrace a people-centred vision that recognises the full humanity and aspirations of the people of Temba?
