Every day now we hear of death. Sometimes it is close and sometimes it is far, but it is everywhere. Since March 2020 we have lost so many incredible people to the coronavirus pandemic. The names and the bodies pile up. The Delta variant has brought it all even closer. We all know someone who has died. A cousin. The cousin’s wife. The famous actor. The banker. The many colleagues. Parents. Not just one parent, but both.
Gone.
But we are here, left behind with our sorrow and our fears and our country. When one considers just how close to death so many in SA have come due to this pandemic, and how so many of us have lost so many people close to us, certain things are clarified. Life doesn’t just matter in and of itself. Living well — being a good and caring citizen in a country that is at peace with itself and its neighbours — also matters. It matters greatly.
That brings the insurrection in July into stark focus. What type of country do we want to live in after this pandemic? Will it be a country characterised by incidents such as the one we have seen, where the poor are used as fodder in the battle for power by corrupt elites? Why should there be so much inequality and poverty in a country where there is so much — and where there could be much more that is equitably shared?
Instead of being a source of our depression, the deeply disturbing events of July should be a wake-up call. They should be a call to action. We have been reminded that our country’s corrupt elites are so cynical and ruthless they are prepared to use anarchy, chaos and the plight of the poor to push us to war.
Why did South Africans in general not fall for the instigators’ reckless and dangerous provocations? It was because these communities know the difference between building and destroying
They failed. South Africans, ordinary women and men, girls and boys, stopped the looting, protected their communities and said, very clearly, that what was happening was not who we are. If there is anything to be learnt from the events of those weeks of murder, mayhem, instigating and looting it is this: no matter how hard they tried to portray us as savages who will fall for their instigation to loot, they failed.
Why did South Africans in general not fall for the instigators’ reckless and dangerous provocations? It was because these communities know the difference between building and destroying. They know that imperfect as our political settlement of 1994 has been, destroying what stands in their communities today will not make things better.
These communities carry scars. The people of Mabopane and Soshanguve remember the burning and looting of their local shopping centres in the early 1990s. The taxi associations remember this too — and that the routes from villages and townships nearby were no longer viable. When the July riots happened, it was these same communities and associations who stood up and refused to be used.
The people of SA made a choice, you see. In 1994 they chose to chart a new path, a new trajectory. They chose peace over war, rule of law over anarchy. They are not fools or ignoramuses. That many of them lack formal education should not be mistaken for ignorance. They know a political shyster and political trickster when they see one.
The events of July were political trickery at its worst. For years former president Jacob Zuma used his power, his access to the most expensive lawyers and his chicanery to show the law the finger. He made it clear he believed his power shielded him from the law that governs ordinary men and women. He was given at least six chances to appear before the Zondo commission of inquiry and to make representations to the Constitutional Court. He showed them both the finger. For that contempt of our courts he was sent to jail.
Our people did not believe these spurious claims of political persecution. From Limpopo to Mpumalanga to the North West, the Free State, Northern Cape, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and large swathes of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, they refused to destroy their country to protect one man. Yes, many lives were lost and billions of rand in destruction was caused. Yet the people won. When the police were not there and the soldiers were in barracks, the people won.
That is why, at this sombre time in our country, when we are losing so many good people, it is worth remembering why we are SA and the choices we made in the 1990s. A good and secure future for all our people is possible. That future is not with those who wish to set black against black, white against black, Zulu against Xhosa, black against Indian.
That future is worth defending, as our people did in those furious weeks in July.
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