S. Africa is the tip of the iceberg of inequality, economic injustice

In 2018 Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters political party, gave an interview to a Turkish television station and warned of an “unled revolution in Africa’s richest but perhaps most unequal country. 

“If things are going the way they are, there will be a revolution in this country,” Malema said. “There will be an unled revolution, and an unled revolution is the highest form of anarchy.”

To many, Malema’s words appeared self-serving and opportunistic, after there was an election around the corner in South Africa and the EFF had risen to prominence by making uncomfortable noises about economic injustice in the country, including demands to take land off white farmers. 

Today, after days of looting and rioting in KwaZulu and Gauteng province in South Africa, Malema’s words seem prescient. The unrest in the country was sparked after former president Jacob Zuma was arrested and sent to jail for 15 months for contempt of court. 

Zuma had failed to honour summonses to court to answer long-standing charges of grand-scale corruption. Zuma is a villain, not a victim. In his book, Licence to Loot, journalist Stephan Hofstatter details the plunder of South Africa’s state-owned enterprises, including Eskom, by a cabal of  Zuma allies led by the notorious Gupta brothers. 

The sums of money stolen by Zuma’s cronies are so staggering, Uganda’s leading thieves would not even qualify to hold the crowbar in South Africa’s white collar criminal syndicates.

In essence, South Africans are rioting and looting their country to stop the trial of a man who oversaw the widespread looting of their country. This says a lot about the logic, or lack thereof of the typical street thug in Durban, but there are important lessons for the rest of the continent.

As obvious as they might be, three are worth noting. The first is informed by a South African on Twitter who pointed out that he had not participated in the riots but all the food stores in his town had been emptied, thus leaving him without supplies. Those who looted have food, he said; those who didn’t don’t. 

What this means is that when societies implode, they bring down good people with them. Some people will end up looting because they want to; others because they need to. 

But the majority will be forced to loot because that is the way to survive. By encouraging his supporters to riot and loot, Zuma makes them guilty by association. He is one of them because they are now all looters and must therefore stick together.

Secondly, the crisis of leadership in Africa is creating new and unforeseen outcomes. In a meeting between media executives and the powers that be at State House Entebbe a few years ago, your columnist tried to make the point that we – publishers and broadcasters with known addresses – were the adults in the room and needed to be allowed space to be critical. The eyes that mattered glazed over and moved on. 

Today considerable policing resources are daily deployed to hunt down faceless bloggers announcing deaths prematurely or shouting fire in the theatre. As unsavoury as they might first appear, Julius Malema, Bobi Wine and other young leaders across the continent are now the adults in the room. A political culture of co-opting, bribing, or killing normative opponents has given birth to unorthodox political contestants. These are the best of the lot, mates; you don’t want to deal with the rest.

Most importantly, though, South Africa reminds us of something we have known for long, but conveniently like to forget. There can be neither peace nor stability in countries where the majority do not have meaningful participation in the economy.

The concept of the modern African nation state which continues to produce what it does not consume and consume what it does not produce, and which continues to rely on outsiders for everything from manufactured wares to vaccines, is not sustainable. I can tell you that for free.

The political elite across many African countries are just local askaris for foreign capital, facilitating its extractive extremes in exchange for being kept in power. This ruse, which has lasted for half a century, is starting to fall apart as it rubs against the youthful energy, hunger, and anger on the continent. We either build inclusive and equitable states or the storefront gets it. As South Africa shows, it is either la’luta or a looter continua.

Mr Kalinaki is a journalist and  poor man’s freedom fighter. 

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Twitter: @Kalinaki