“There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change is the history of millions of actions. Small and large, coming together at critical points to create a power that governments cannot surpass.”
These words by American philosopher and historian Howard Zinn whisper a sensibility that I am bursting to shout as SA reaches yet another fever pitch for change. SA has been here before. In the 1980s when apartheid was no longer tolerable. In the early 2000s when the power of multinational pharmaceuticals and an unyielding president threatened the lives of people living with HIV.
In 2012 when miners were brutally shot down by a state that would protect the interests of elites over the demands for a living wage by working people. In 2015 when students mobilised across the country for free, decolonised education. In 2017 when crass corruption exposed a shameless government that was unmoved as the country counted the cost of corruption to development.
In 2021 when a factional political battle showed us how easily marginalised people in SA can be galvanised to destruction because ultimately gross inequality means that millions of people in the country know that it’s resources are not shared and systems are discriminating.
In each case we have narrowly escaped SA’s descent into a burning inferno, whose ultimate implosion is inevitable. We are here again, SA. Our future is on a knife’s edge. Millions of us checked out. Millions more facing death due to hunger, crime and depression. Increasing numbers of communities taking to the streets daily to voice our frustrations and signal that this state of the nation is not and should not be normalised.
Eskom’s rolling blackouts are but one of many unchecked crises, building up the anger and desperation that can be felt in all corners of the country while comfortable political and economic elites move R1bn pieces across a proverbial chess board or soccer pitch. Fiddling while SA burns.
In this moment of acute crisis, we simply do not have time to judge each other’s efforts for change harshly. All efforts, big or small, matter when what is at stake is our collective futures. If your house is burning down and someone brought a small bucket to help carry water because it is the only one they have, would you chastise them for wasting your time with merger efforts or commend them for their contribution to end the devastation you face?
Yet, people dare to take actions through protests demanding action, law suits demanding accountability or raise their hands to contest political power are met with mocking mutterings judging their actions as insufficient or unworthy, often by those unwilling to do anything at all.
Last Thursday, a movement of activists called StandUpSA, supported by activists from Rise Mzansi, Not in My Name and Voice in Action among others, took to the streets of Sunninghill to confront the management of Eskom to demand a workable plan to end loadshedding, transparency about the challenges and weekly updates to enforce accountability. Led by black professionals who are often criticised for outsourcing struggle to the more disenfranchised people, a crowd of hundreds of people gathered to make a commitment to take action and be part of the solution.
These are the small but important steps all communities in SA must take if we are truly going to harness people’s power to make much needed changes possible. Solidarity does not require us to always agree with each other. It does not require us to like each other. It does call us to a higher order of engagement that is in good faith, based in mutual respect and focused on finding the goals that commonly unite rather on the things that divide.
SA must enable and embrace our “…millions of actions. Small and large.” We must recognise the value in each and while in good faith correcting harmful practices. What this moment in SA’s history can simply not afford is dogmatic thinking that allows for the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Once our standard for participation or support becomes contingent on people sharing our worldview implicitly, and an unwillingness to find common ground, even with those people who are well intended, it is time to acknowledge that we are governed by our egos rather than our principles and our privileges rather than our priorities.
History will judge us harshly for using a time of deep crisis to bicker rather than coalesce. We will go down in history as those who sought comfort in our righteous indignation while our society fell apart and our children’s futures crumbled. We will be a generation hailed for our prolific think pieces but admonished for allowing our personal comforts get in the way of urgent action. We will be the generation who said “who do they think they are”, far more often than we said “we are the ones we have been waiting for”.
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