Hewers of Wood, Drawers of Water and Michael Jackson

The day after Michael Jackson died; I’m driving along Beyers Naude Drive west of Johannesburg. This long arterial, snakes its way from the quaint old suburb of Melville, through affluent neighbourhoods, over the N1 Highway, passed wedding farms and conference centres, before fading into the veld near the Cradle of Humankind. On and around the Drive, one finds several glittering malls, a space-age building housing a vehicle financing institution, two golf estates, innumerable cluster home complexes, private schools and an international University. The Drive also introduces one to squatter camps like Zandspruit, Lion Park and the curiously named Video Centre. Even to the least observant traveller, a drive down Beyers Naude Drive provides a surreal journey through South Africa’s past, and present, as well as its good and ugly.
My colleague and I head towards Zandspruit. Previously an agricultural small holding, Zandspruit is now a sprawling mass of tiny shanti mkukus. It stands out as a forgotten stepchild in this area of prosperity and accelerated growth. Even the nearby well laid-out mixed housing settlement of Cosmos City, stands in stark contrast to the claustrophobic chaos one experiences at Zandspruit.
Named for anti-apartheid pastor Beyers Naudé, the Drive was previously known as DF Malan Drive after South Africa’s first apartheid-era Prime Minister. The irony of this name change smacks one in the face as you enter Zandspruit. The poverty and neglect seem more the malicious fruits of Malan and his kind than the victorious struggle of people like Naude. As we enter the settlement, we pass a woman pushing a wheelbarrow with empty water plastic drums in. She is off to a communal tap to fetch water.
We stop at one of the informal crèches we are here to visit. Its run by a bustling woman named Girlie. Girlie gives us a tour. There is not much to see: 4 rooms built in a U-shape with a small play area in the middle. It is remarkably clean. Girlie explains that she has 77 children and 5 teachers. She has had no training in early childhood development and follows no syllabus or programme. One of her teachers shows me some of the work the children have been doing. It is coloring-in pages depicting biblical characters.
My mind goes back to a discussion I’ve had with early childhood development (ECD) expert, Dr Elsie Carlitz at her pre-school in Centurion outside Pretoria. Dr Carlitz oozes passion for children. “I’m on the side of children”, she proclaimed before laying out the fundamentals for an ECD centre: Enough place to play - since children learn mostly by playing, warm, attentive and competent adult supervision and a non-punitive, safe environment.
Looking around, Girlie’s school, it clearly does not have the first requirement and is struggling at best with the other two.
As we move to the next school I remember thinking that ironically Dr Carlitz’s home town of Centurion had previously been known as Verwoerdburg, after notorious Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. Verwoerd is best known for his infamous statement regarding limiting Black education to basic literacy and numeracy because Africans were meant to be ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’. Evidenced by structural unemployment and a chronic skills shortaeg, the curse of Verwoerd’s policies is still felt in South Africa today. The servant under-class that Verwoerd envisioned walk the dusty streets of places like Zandspruit.
Our next stop is a nearby two-roomed establishment. Nonkozi, the principal complains about the lack of electricity, space and toys. Smiling children sit on an old carpet eating sandwiches. Nonkozi is clearly passionate and talks about giving the children the basics to prepare them to go to school. Looking around at the barren nature of the place and the fact that she also is short on the requirements for quality early childhood development, I’m struck by the improbability of that happening. The cackling ghosts of Verwoerd and Malan peer over my shoulder.
A plethora of international research points to the benefits of positive early childhood programming. Children with positive ECD experiences are more likely to perform better in school, have enhanced social skills and are able to tackle challenging tasks better. Dr Carlitz had added that when the early childhood development is poorly done, boys in particular become frustrated and violent, while girls also become aggressive. “Why do we see aggressive behaviour in our schools”, she had asked rhetorically. I had nodded and wonder if South Africa with its existing social challenges needed any more dysfunctional children.

Given Michael Jackson’s recent death, the issue of dysfunctional children is tragically relevant. An American friend commented once that “when children don’t have a childhood – they grow up to be Michael Jackson”. I wonder if, like the American singer who was deprived of his childhood, lived a tormented life and died prematurely, South Africa is not sowing trouble for itself through the neglect of the early years of its children’s lives. To compound the problem, ECD falls in the gap between the Departments formerly known as Education and Social Development. Principals of pre-schools in the nearby affluent areas of Sundowner and Allen’s Nek told me that they pretty much operate independent of any support or monitoring from local or provincial government. The only engagement they have is with the local district health office checking things like number of toilets or registration numbers.
Girlie and Nonkozi operate outside even this weak framework and their dream of preparing the children under their care for success is slim at best. The tentacles of the past and the neglect of the present point more to them becoming part of a servant underclass. Verwoerd’s hewers of wood and drawers of water.
Exiting the settlement I join Beyers Naude Drive. On my car radio, a station is featuring a tribute to Michael Jackson. Jackson’s hit song Billy Jean is playing.
He sings that “a lie becomes the truth”.
Three boys stand next to the road in front of me. They are carrying a tree saw.