South Africa Is Burning: Then and Now
I suspect this topic has been covered thoroughly before, but I feel I cannot let my voice be silent on this. South Africa is burning today, as it did in the Apartheid era. How often this year have you heard about violent protests? More specifically, how often have you heard about schools or universities being burnt or consumed in the more metaphorical flames of violence? I can name a few examples: The Shack built at the University of Cape Town and the subsequent violence (burning of shuttles, paintings, portable toilets and even petrol bombings), protests at Wits University, protests at the University of the Free State (where white and black students clashed on a rugby field, after the disruption of a rugby match), protests at the North West University in Potchefstroom (where an admin building, a library and computer labs were burnt), the Afrikaans Must Fall movement at the University of Pretoria… there are many more examples, including the 50 or so schools that were recently burnt down in Limpopo.
Often, when universities call upon private security or the South African Police Service (SAPS) to help quell the violence on their campuses, some students (generally those who support the protests) have argued that the heightened security is a problem; that the security “intimidates” them, that it infringes on their rights somehow. However, I ask you, if the protesters’ way of negotiating is through burning paintings or student transportation, how illogical is it to hire extra security? The protesters have clearly disregarded the universities’ methods of making grievances heard.
I would like to ask you, how often have your heard about the arsonists behind the burning of schools and universities being brought to justice? I have heard about arrests, here and there, but no prosecution and more often than not, the students involved are allowed to return to campus without any consequences for their actions.
The ANC – African National Congress – and other political parties have condemned these acts of violence, including where educational institutions are burnt down. Of course, the immediate response by many South Africans is to point out that this is part of how the ANC fought the Struggle against an oppressive government. Indeed, the ANC made liberal use of terrorism – and certainly these acts of burning down schools and universities in an attempt to have the protesters' demands met, can be considered terrorism. For more information on the ANC before 1994, please watch the YouTube video linked below. It is an extract from a documentary about the strategies of the ANC during the Struggle years, titled Tainted Heroes.
Around the time of Nelson Mandela’s death, I met a woman. She was old and, yes, she was white. She didn’t seem to share the rest of the world’s of Madiba – that is, she didn’t view him as a hero. When I asked her why, she told me that she had once been a nurse. One day, as she was doing her rounds, they started receiving a stream of bomb victims. Most of these victims had been black people, about to journey by train. The train had been rigged with explosives and detonated in an act of terrorism. She later found out that Umkhonto we Sizwe (known also as MK, the militant arm of the ANC) had been responsible. It is suspected that MK had made a mistake in their timing; that they had planned on blowing the train up when white civilians were on the train.
Whether Mandela had been personally aware of or complicit in this act or not, he had been involved in similar attacks. And this old woman, still new to nursing at the time, had been so traumatised by what had happened that day – the carnage and suffering she saw – that she had not been able to accept the idea of Mandela as a hero. I am ashamed to say I cannot recall the name of the train station that was targeted – and trying to find information about it buried me under a mountain of reports of similar bombing with little detail available.
This had, sadly, been the first time I had learned about what the ANC and MK had done before 1994. It was not taught to us at school, it is a part of history that the ANC would rather was forgotten. So I read up on the history of MK and of the ANC, and other liberation movements of the time, and the information was terrifying.
We all know about the Soweto Uprising, where schools and offices were burnt down. And the question has been raised: Why do we condemn the burning of schools now, when we are so willing to declare that is was a heroic act during the Soweto Uprising?
The goal of many freedom fighters during Apartheid was to make South Africa ungovernable (as claimed by Oliver Thambo and many other activists of the time). The government was not listening to them, so they set out to make their message heard in unmistakeable ways. These acts of terrorism and the burning of schools were all part of an attempt to force the government to listen and meet their demands. So what’s different now?
Well, we as South Africans have the right to change the government. We are not powerless any more! We each have a vote, and through that vote the power to control the government. There is no reasonable excuse to burn anything until the citizens of South Africa have used the power of their vote and seen it fail. Why would we burn the very institutions that allow us to be free? These institutions lay a foundation on which we can build better lives for ourselves.
Why do so many still vote for the ANC after it has failed us for at least 22 years? Is it a feeling of loyalty? Do we feel we owe the ANC for aiding in the Struggle against Apartheid? Or are we so afraid of the spectre of Apartheid that we would rather vote for an ANC that has betrayed the ideals they once fought for?
The goal of the arsonists of schools and universities today is to force those who have power to listen. But how often have these arsonists tried making their voices heard in other ways? In a sense, the goal of these arsonists is the same as the goal of the freedom fighters in the Apartheid era: make South Africa ungovernable. But why is this happening when there are alternatives? Why is this happening in a democracy?
In my opinion, the answer is simple. During Apartheid, South Africans learnt that if you are unhappy with the system, you break it. You burn things, bomb things, torture people, kill people, all in an attempt to force someone to listen. Most of the the world condoned it! To the rest of the world, it was unthinkable – unimaginable – that a minority could oppress the majority. Apartheid put into words and law what was happening in other countries, all over the world: racial oppression. In other countries, like in America, it was the majority oppressing the minority. So when South Africans cried out, the world responded with encouragement: “Make them pay!”
So, during Apartheid, not only did the violence work, it was condoned. And we see it again, now. The violence is working. The higher-ups are listening. Not only that, but arsonists and vandals are not punished by courts, they are sympathised with. There are almost no consequences for their actions. To me, that seems like a recipe for disaster.
These protesters do not always have fair demands. Not only that, they often refuse to listen to the reason as to why their demands cannot be met; their “negotiations” extend only to ultimatums. They are infringing on the rights of others who wish to receive an education and costing not only the government, but many businesses and companies who support these schools and universities, millions – if not billions.
But the financial costs are nothing compared to the cost of education lost. How many school children and students have been affected? How many hopeful faces cannot now receive the education promised to them by our hard-won Bill of Rights? How long will it take to rebuild the schools in Limpopo? Will there be teachers willing to teach somewhere so dangerous? How much have these actions cost the innocent learners, all in the name of some political pressure?
One of the biggest problems that I can see in South Africa, is this: We have a Western system – it isn’t perfect, but it works – while the majority of people in South Africa think in an “African” way. The result is that the system is all too often abused or ignored entirely. Just look at recent comments by the man in the highest position of responsibility in this country. Anything Western is white, and anything white is oppressive, according to some? A sad truth indeed, that this is how we are using the freedom we are given.
South Africa has a painful history. It is a history of triumph against great odds, too. 1994 and the tireless work of Mandela and his contemporaries from all races afforded us a wonderful opportunity, but until we grasp that opportunity and move to a brighter future, we will merely add to the pain in our past. These fires burn South Africa, and when South Africa burns, so do we.
YouTube:
Tainted Heroes – ANC bombings
Sources and other links:
