TESSA DOOMS | Revolution must be inspired by zeal to rebuild, not destroy, unlike the July riots

“At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”

These words attributed to Argentine-born freedom fighter Che Guevara express a sentiment I believe as a citizen of SA who has made a decision to work to create a country we all deserve, even as crises continue to mount.

I am a life-long activist. My journey of community building and working towards progress and justice began in Eldorado Park more than 20 years ago, when as a youth leader in my church and community I worked to advance the opportunities of young people by leading social development programmes. My commitment to societal change has steadily developed from something very personal – about my community and young people with whom I had close personal relationships – to a deeply public and political commitment to change lives for people I do not know.

My most recent moment of reckoning with my commitment to creating a better society and world came during the July 2021 riots in SA. What began as a protest against the jail sentence imposed on former president Jacob Zuma by the Constitutional Court, became rolling riots, looting and destruction of property by many poor, marginalised and disenfranchised South Africans.

As I watched the scenes unfold across KwaZulu-Natal and my home province of Gauteng, I had two important realisations. First, the riots were not about party politics for those in the streets – they were an opportunity to reclaim power in a democracy that has taken rather than given them power. And second, as a person with almost accidental privilege in this broken society, I could either use my privilege to secure my future and that of my family by buffering us from the increasing dysfunction and decay, or disrupt my comforts and privileges by extending my time, resources and efforts to the work of fighting a battle that ostensibly isn’t mine and building a SA we all deserve, with the most marginalised in our society. 

While watching the riots in 2021, my heart began to burn for revolution. Not all riots are revolutionary, and not all revolutions are riotous. Revolution requires political intent for substantive change. It is a collective action for progress that begins in earnest when a collective vision for a better social order is so clear to all that those who desire it can feel it in their souls and in their songs.

Although at times led by individuals, revolution is not an individual pursuit. Revolution is a collective effort to build a better society, powered by the shared aspirations of people who have convinced and inspired each other to believe that a more just, fair, dignified and free world is possible. Like an unlikely couple falling in love, revolution is felt before it is seen. It is driven by unexplained passion, and tends towards reckless abandon if not properly channelled.  

Even when revolution requires riot, the goal is not to destroy but to sound an alarm, signal urgency and channel passions. Ultimately, however, the goal of revolution is always to rebuild; to create a new future. It is a generative force that demands us to be and do more than what gives us comfort in the moment. Like lovers, revolution hopes for the opportunity to birth new life into societies.

In the past two decades, I have grown from someone seeking incremental reforms for my community and myself, to a person bursting with desires to reimagine, rethink and reconfigure a society for all. I am not committed to riot, but to revolution. Revolutionary ideas that see SA not as it is but as it could be. Revolutionary actions, big and small, that enlists other hearts and souls in a compact to do the personal and public work of change. Revolutionary vision that compels me beyond pretty words, towards gritty actions.

Revolution is a doing word. As Africa's freedom fighter Thomas Sankara reminds us: "Our revolution is not a public-speaking tournament. Our revolution is not a battle of fine phrases. Our revolution is not simply for spouting slogans that are no more than signals used by manipulators trying to use them as catchwords, as codewords, as a foil for their own display. Our revolution is, and should continue to be, the collective effort of revolutionaries to transform reality, to improve the concrete situation of the masses of our country."