Act for justice, South Africans!

THE older generation of ‘progressives’ have some images seared into their souls. The cops at Kent State University, killing four unarmed protesting students in May 1970. Hector Pieterson. Students being arrested at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town. Ashley Kriel.

Purple water cannon, teargas, rubber bullets – the armoury of an unjust and violent state, always being faced down by young people, armed with nothing but their belief in justice… and an occasional flower.

So it’s hard for us to criticise #FeesMustFall. Because young people putting their bodies on the line is a meme that we respond to viscerally. Youth = right, authorities = wrong. Okay? Well… this time round, it’s a bit more complex.

We get absolute proclamations from people present to see young people with faces cut by rubber bullets (those things are hard – don’t let anyone tell you they’re a soft option; at the right distance, they can kill); we get equally absolute proclamations from others in the heart of the action roundly condemning the students.

Are rocks and petrol bombs the way to go?

I can get behind a call for free education, but I do find it hard to swallow when working class people (a cleaner at Wits; those security guards in the burning building at CPUT) are harmed. In the latter case, it seems, intentionally. And I find myself yelling for bolder, more creative ways of protesting: rocks and petrol bombs, really?

But this is an eight-sided situation (so to speak) of which few if any of us can see more than four or five sides at a time.

However, it is probably not, as Dr Shuaib Manjra points out a “national revolutionary moment”. I’ve no doubt that many of the students believe it is, that this is it, the downfall of a corrupt, incompetent and morally bankrupt government. I wish they were right, but I doubt it. Not by itself, that is.

It is, however, a symptom, a red flag, part of a much bigger picture. “The student struggles … need to be seen within a broader political landscape – which includes the failure of the government to deliver basic human needs; a shrinking economy with an attendant reduction in job opportunities; a failed political leadership; wastage of enormous state resources through corruption and maladministration; and importantly a contest for political space among numerous new role-players particularly with the emergence of the EFF and PASMA,” writes Dr Manjra.

Simmering anger and violence

This country has been simmering with anger and violence because of these factors for years now. What does it say about our government that South Africa averaged – according to the Institute for Security Studies – three protests and/or labour strikes a day between 2013 and 2015?

What does it say that people are so frustrated by the intransigence of local authorities, who simply do not act on petitions and letters and delegations, that they ultimately turn to violence and destruction?

The result was predictable. “Our children are watching us, they’re gonna be like us.” (The Dixie Chicks, I Hope) That watching and learning is now manifesting in our universities: violence garners attention.

I feel a strong desire to yell: “Told you so!” To both our pusillanimous leadership and to civil society. We’re all willing to accuse political leaders of being up for what they can get, and it’s true, but it’s also true for the rest of us who’ve been happy to do “business as usual”, living comfortable lives and remaining willingly blind to the massive inequalities and the frustration and rage they trigger. (With some outstanding and honourable exceptions, of course.)

An explosion was inevitable. This one may well be contained; will the next be, too?

Because there are other, more universal factors at play here than the battle for free education: along with the steady drop in jobs, there’s the huge leap in food prices, just over 15% year-on-year; and there’s the drought – which I hear may not really break until close to mid-December. How frightening is this: “As of this moment, Caledon River is dry therefore making it impossible to abstract anything out of it. The municipality has however requested to have highlands water released to Caledon River but due to the low levels at Katse Dam, our request could not be granted.”

Punishing temperatures way above historical averages are bad news for staple food crops and livestock.

Hunger, thirst, joblessness, and a corrupt, incompetent government at many levels, fighting only to defend its own selfish and self-enriching ends; together, this adds up to a very dangerous mix at a dangerous nexus of history.

It is time for civil society, for each and every one of us, to make our voices heard. Where are the churches? Where are the business organisations? Where are the trade unions? We have to be active citizens, to pound on the doors, to demand that government either gets its act together and serves this country, LEADS this country, or gets out of the way so that the rest of us can do what needs to be done.

We need to ensure that, yes, we focus on education (we devote a stupidly small part of the budget to it) but also that we take care of the vulnerable, use state intervention to create jobs wisely (as was necessary in the States following the Depression); that we protect our soil fertility, conserve water resources and maintain infrastructure… that we SERVE the people.

…let's learn from our history
And do it differently…

I hope, I hope, I hope….

*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter.