A necessary change in political culture
12 March 2020
The sentencing this week of a good mate of mine, Fees Must Fall activist, Mcebo Freedom Dlamini, got me thinking about the protest culture in this country and the need for a change in our general political culture. The right to protest is enshrined in our constitution, but often we find that communities burn public infrastructure and commit violent acts when protesting to defend their rights, forgetting that rights do indeed come with responsibilities, which we must always honour in whatever protest action we partake in.
There is a serious need for a change in political and protest culture in this country, because unlike the 1980s, we are no longer fighting to bring down an unjust regime, but rather, within the post 94 dispensation, we are trying to build a country, in an inclusive and socially cohesive manner.
The challenge we are faced with, of deconstructing remnants of the colonial and apartheid legacy in our society, is also counteracted by the fact that, simultaneously, we are also building a new society, that is socially inclusive and cohesive for the benefit of all South Africans. My friend Mcebo’s sentencing this week, for his actions during the Fees Must Fall protest movement, a just struggle if ever there was one, brought this home in the most personal manner.
It highlighted the need for a change in political culture, a new ethos within our communities, taking us from a “struggle” mindset, to a nation-building outlook. This will affect how we protest and register our dissatisfaction with any aspects of our democratic establishment. It will bring about respect for the rule of law and our constitutionalism mechanisms, which should ensure that the days of burning down buildings and public infrastructure like we did in the 1980s, when we exercise our right to protest, are at an end.
No matter how just our cause is, respect for order and the rule of law is a non-negotiable for any sane society. Public backlash against ineptitude and corruption, which lead to service delivery lags, should never degenerate into the lawlessness we often witness when our communities protest. This lawlessness is also seen in the problem of illegal land invasions and occupation of houses that government has built for families within our communities.
Dissatisfaction with corrupt activity and inefficiencies, which delay delivery of houses to worthwhile beneficiaries should never degenerate into the lawlessness that we are seeing with these illegal land invasions and occupation of houses and the criminal cartels that are behind them.
Part of the change in political culture, will also require embracing a new service delivery model, with communities rightly expecting that the public representatives that they have elected into office through their political parties, will deliver basic services and public goods of the highest quality. That is a reasonable expectation, which unfortunately goes unmet all too often in contemporary South Africa.
With this expectation, must also come a new attitude from our communities, not seeing themselves as passive recipients within the service delivery process, but rather partners and ultimately the most critical stakeholders in that process, who are also active participants in that process. This perspective, of course, will create opportunities to promote local SMMEs and entrepreneurs and local economic development, throughout the value chain of the service delivery process.
This should enable the delivery of cost-effective, efficient, effective services to local communities, of course with the implication that corruption and middle men entities, with their parasitic, rent-seeking tendencies are dealt with and removed from the equation, something that we have not been very good at, or honest about addressing to be more accurate.
Building something is always more hard work than breaking it down, so as we exercise our right to protest and defend our rights as citizens and communities, it behoves us to constantly remind ourselves that we are in a different dispensation, requiring a different ethos and outlook and hence we should not be destroying pubic property or committing acts of criminality and violence in doing so.
Mugabe Ratshikuniworks for the Gauteng provincial government; He is an activist with a passion for social justice and transformation. He writes here in his personal capacity.
