Three days ago, a fire was lit on the third floor of the National Council of Provinces building. It spread through the parliamentary complex, extending to the office space, the gymnasium as well as the National Assembly.
The following day, a fire broke out again on the roof of the National Assembly. The fire has been labelled as arson and a 49-year-old male suspect was arrested on the very day that it broke out.
Many South Africans have been raising concern about the failures of national intelligence at averting such a serious crisis. If the official story is true, that indeed this lone individual was able to gain access to a national key point that is protected under specific legislation, then SA has a serious national security crisis.
The official story, which also claims that the sprinkler system did not function properly, also calls into question the quality and standards of maintenance of such critical government infrastructure.
The other concern is also the impact that this will have on our fiscus given that the parliamentary precinct must be repaired as a matter of urgency for the work of parliament to continue in the new year.
While all rational people were raising serious concerns about the fire damage and implications, one Dudu Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former president Jacob Zuma, went on social media to celebrate the fire.
In a tweet that has since gone viral, Zuma-Sambudla, applauded the arsonist, stating: “Cape Town…We see you! Amandla!!!”. She punctuated the statement with three raised fists and a photo of the burning buildings. The same person also celebrated the burning, looting and destruction of infrastructure during the July riots last year.
In a normal country, such an individual would be rejected as a lawless and destructive person. But in SA, there are scores of people who are celebrating what they deem is a radical stance that she has taken.
These sentiments were also pronounced during the #FeesMustFall movement when students were being celebrated for burning down universities. Some sought to define this as some profound and revolutionary act, an “obliteration of the capitalist system” and a victory for black people.
In reality, it was a reactionary tactic that set the struggle 10 steps backwards because the universities that were torched were mainly historically black institutions that already had underdeveloped infrastructure. It was the same universities where black students go.
The problem in SA is that it is very easy to be labelled a radical. It does not require anything other than to shout at the top of one’s voice and to make inflammatory statements that would not stand up to intellectual scrutiny.
Most of the people deemed radical are in fact, highly reactionary and dangerous. Zuma-Sambudla is the evidence. That we continue to allow her to incite violence like she often does, to operate with absolute impunity, is demonstrative of our tolerance of chaos. In a normal country, no person can pose such a threat to the livelihoods of others and to national security without consequence – not even the daughter of a former president.
South Africans need to think very seriously about who it accords the status of a revolutionary and who it labels a radical. We run the risk of treating rational people as the problem and people who are in fact the problem, as rational.
When that happens, we set parameters for rule-by-noise politics. Such a society demonises thinkers and those who believe in reason. It treats them like cowards and sell-outs and presents the Zuma-Sambudlas as the solution.
It is an extremely dangerous society to create.
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