It seems the communities, particularly the shack dwellers, have woken up and refused to be fooled by politicians who are pretending to be representing them while they want to fulfill their intentions.
Previously, the politicians used this period to target and influence communities to protest for service delivery.
With the looming elections, communities are relatively quiet. People are living their normal lives.
Last weekend, I drove through Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Mfuleni, Strand and Samora Machel and what I witnessed was unpleasant.
I witnessed piles of rubbish along most roads and sewage flowing through the streets everywhere.
You can see that it’s been there for a while and our people are suffering while we have a municipality that prides itself in working for everyone, ‘The City Works For You’.
I asked myself, what happened to the community leaders who used to organise marches to demand service delivery?
Have the communities given up on government and political organisations?
Now people are lambasting the political parties and accusing them of using them as a step ladder to get votes and dump them afterwards.
Communities no longer rely on political organisations, they are now creating jobs for themselves. They do all this to put food on the table and support their families.
While the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) has previously been regarded as an alternative, people no longer trust this initiative. The belief is that it is not sustainable.
People no longer attend community meetings called by their ward councillors, citing that when there are job opportunities councillors hire their people.
People are tired of politics, they see politics as a scam.
Whichever organisation wins these upcoming elections will need to ensure that it revives the trust that the community had in the government.
People do not care anymore.