Understanding political violence in the Western Cape
Writing in Business Day on Friday, Professor Anthony Butler suggests that the ANC Youth League (taking its cue from the ANC of the mid-1980s) is only pretending to make the Western Cape "ungovernable" because it does not have a hope of actually doing so. Any attempt to stop the Youth League's ungovernability campaign is therefore heavy-handed and undemocratic.
What he underestimates is just how vulnerable a young democracy is to organisations that behave like the ANCYL. Rioters close down thoroughfares, sow terror by stoning buses and trains, destroy public amenities for thousands of people and prevent services from being delivered to those who need them. This drives away investors which slows down the economy and costs jobs.
Besides the economic impact, ungovernability campaigns like this fundamentally undermine the constitutional order. This is not a legitimate protest as Professor Butler avers, it is an illegal campaign to thwart the democratic will of the electorate. In the words of one ANCYL leader, the objective is to "destroy everything".
We are not living in the 1980s. This is a constitutional democracy. Nobody has the right to undermine the constitution by trying to make a province "ungovernable". And nobody has the right to unleash the violence and mayhem that led to the death of four people, including a three year old toddler.
Professor Butler goes on to question whether the DA is capable of governing the Western Cape (and elsewhere) because it has requested the assistance of the military and intelligence agencies in dealing with gang violence and political riots.
He must know that the Western Cape routinely tops the league tables for good governance and service delivery (including job creation, matric results and basic services). The DA's capability in government is even acknowledged by high-ranking ANC leaders in moments of candour.
The fact is, however well a province is governed, provinces do not have their own armies, intelligence services or police services. If local political conflicts threaten the constitutional order, then it is appropriate to call on these national agencies to do the job they are mandated to do.
Whether or not the police and the intelligence services do something about the ANCYL's ungovernability campaign will tell us something about the political influence brought to bear on these supposedly independent state institutions. That is the fundamental issue at stake here.
Gavin Davis is Communications Director Democratic Alliance. This letter first appeared in Business Day.
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