Like the proverbial frog in tepid but gradually boiling water, we seem to take every crisis or calamity in our stride. On any given day, people protesting — against one thing or the other — will trash and block streets, burn buildings and inconvenience innocent civilians without suffering any consequences. We simply shrug our shoulders and move on. Anarchy has been normalised.
This week delinquent truckers parked their heavy-duty vehicles on the N3, blocking the country’s main economic artery and disrupting motorists. After almost a day of toing and froing, the authorities were able to tow the vehicles away. No outrage, just relief that the mess has been cleared. Police said four (only four?) drivers had been arrested.
But more concerning is the disorderly conduct in our politics, specifically parliament, the very heart of our democracy. Anarchy has taken hold of it. It was déjà vu again last week when the EFF, trying to stop President Cyril Ramaphosa from delivering his budget, again turned parliament into a circus. It was the same tactics they used against Jacob Zuma, and they believe they can similarly hound and harass Ramaphosa.
In any functioning democracy, when a politician finds himself in a spot of bother, he either resigns or goes to parliament to account for his sins. But amid the scandal of millions in foreign currency found on his farm, Ramaphosa has decided not to take the public into his confidence. He’s keeping mum. He’ll instead speak to the integrity commission, a toothless organ of his party. That’s giving the public the middle finger, because he’s saying he accounts to his party, not to the voters who elected him.
Ramaphosa obviously has a case to answer. But that’s no justification for the events last week. Not to say the ANC is never guilty of diabolical behaviour, but the EFF has always been a party in search of a pretext to cause trouble. That’s how it rolls, as they say. It seems to recruit the most uncouth and inarticulate among us to send to parliament. And because they’re unable to debate or reason coherently, all they know is to scream and shout obscenities at their opponents. And that’s a good day’s work at the office. They’re also amply rewarded.
It’s sickening to think that our taxes go into paying for such loutish behaviour. If we had a proper and accountable electoral system, these miscreants wouldn’t even make it to the local village council. They don’t seem to know what freedom or democracy is supposed to be about or how we got here.
Do they think people sacrificed their lives so EFF MPs can have the luxury of screaming insults in parliament? Oppression or apartheid is probably something they picked up in history books, that is if they can read at all. Such behaviour does not only poison our political well, it also encourages and legitimises the sort of destruction often carried out in the streets by strikers and truckers. It seems one has to burn or destroy to be heard.
The EFF has always been a party in search of a pretext to cause trouble. That’s how it rolls
What’s also maddening is the fact that the establishment or whoever is supposed to be in charge seems hapless or incapable of dealing with the chaos. They tremble at the mere mention of Julius Malema.
We have to look again at Ramaphosa’s spinelessness. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula should never have been appointed speaker. There were high-fives in certain quarters after she was supposedly fired following the July unrest. At last an incompetent minister had been shown the door, people thought.
Later we found out she had in fact been promoted to speaker. A serial offender, she has no moral authority to command the respect of the house, or to call MPs to order. After the havoc wreaked by Zuma and Baleka Mbete on the institution, parliament needed a person of unimpeachable reputation who enjoyed the respect of the house and the country as a whole. Unfortunately Ramaphosa saw it as an opportunity to park his deadwood.
It is in such an environment — where neither rules, morals nor honesty seem to apply — that the likes of Malema thrive. His strong suit, his forte, is to break every rule in the book — homeless people should take over vacant land, foreigners should disregard the country’s borders, and so on. And he has the support of a significant section of the population who, after almost three decades of democracy, have yet to see any improvement in their lives. Malema often rails against corruption. But it’s not as if he’s squeaky clean. If Shamila Batohi was half awake, Malema would have long since swapped his red overalls for orange ones.
But the media is also to blame. There’s a media scrum each time he calls a media conference to pontificate about anything under the sun. About two years ago TV cameras were covering the Zondo commission when Malema decided to hold an impromptu rally not far from the venue. The cameras immediately abandoned the commission to cover the windbag hurling juicy insults at all and sundry.
If you don’t think one man can put the future of society in peril, look no further than Donald Trump; the US may now be sleepwalking into something akin to a dictatorship. Or nearer home, Idi Amin in Uganda, Charles Taylor in Liberia, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. And democracy is no guarantee of stability or a bar against dictatorship either. It could very well be a conveyor belt to autocracy. Adolph Hitler got into power through an election.
The difficulty for SA is that nobody seems prepared to speak up against such destructive boorishness and megalomania. Everybody, including those in power, seems to cower in the face of the barrage.
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