South Africa: How burning anger led to chaos and death

As smoke and flames from a fire started by looters crept up the high-rise building in Durban, Naledi Manyoni had to escape. Clutching her two-year-old daughter Melokuhle, she ran down the stairs from her 16th floor apartment and, upon finding her escape route blocked, squeezed out to a second floor balcony. Amid sirens, shouting and smoke, she dropped Melokuhle into the outstretched arms of a crowd of people below her. “All I could think was to make sure my baby lived,” she later said. “What was important was for my daughter to be out of that situation.” Video of Naledi’s traumatic escape was beamed around the world last week as two of South Africa’s most populous provinces were in the grips of deadly riots, violence and looting, prompted by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma. In the worst violence to hit the country since the end of apartheid in 1994, 337 people were killed and a trail of destruction, taking in shopping centres, blood banks, health centres and restaurants, was left in its wake. The crisis has exposed the deep inequity that still exists across the country 27 years after Nelson Mandela ushered in a peaceful transition to democracy, following decades of white minority rule which enforced brutal, institutionalised racial segregation. The election of Mandela was seen as a beacon of hope across the world. But as the legacy of apartheid persists, and as a third wave of COVID-19 infections ravages the country, what now for the “rainbow nation?” A TINDERBOX An uneasy calm has now settled over KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province, where the violence, causing $1.37 billion damage as rioters ransacked, ignited and destroyed 161 shopping centres, 11 warehouses and eight factories. In devastating scenes stampedes of thousands of people — some of whom were killed in the chaos — ransacked shops, stealing food, electrical appliances, alcohol and clothes. The unrest spiralled into Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, with thousands of shops looted, banks and post offices vandalised and more than 100 mobile phone towers destroyed. More than 25,000 troops — a deployment the size of which has not been seen since the apartheid regime — were on the streets, while in many cases business owners and locals armed themselves to defend their buildings. Six people have been arrested on charges of inciting violence, and five remain in custody. While order has been restored food and fuel shortages are at levels not experienced in post-apartheid South Africa, resulting in huge queues for food in recent days. “I’m standing here against vandals and hooligans,” said Katlego Motati as she stood in a rubble-strewn street in Soweto. “When I saw the destruction ... I was in tears, seeing how all this has panned out. At the end of the day, we will be struggling because of this. Our economy is going to be really damaged.” The economy was already struggling, with the apartheid legacy of inequality, poverty and corruption still gripping the country. On top of that, South Africa is in the grips of a third COVID-19 wave, fuelled by the contagious Delta variant. Ongoing lockdowns have caused unemployment to soar and created unrest among frustrated citizens. South Africa has long had one of the world’s most significant gaps between wealthy and poor, with 70 per cent of the country’s income skewed to 20 per cent of the population and about half of the country’s 60 million people living in poverty. Unemployment is now at record highs of 32 per cent, while youth unemployment is a staggering 63 per cent. All of this created a tinderbox, and the imprisonment of Zuma earlier this month lit the match. A TEST FOR DEMOCRACY Zuma, a revered veteran of the African National Congress liberation movement who spent 10 years in prison for opposing white-minority rule, was elected president in 2009. He had already been linked to corruption relating to a 1999 arms deal and his nine-year reign as president was plagued by further scandal. He was forced to step down in 2018 and three years later, in what is shaping as a huge test for the country’s democratic and legal system, he is facing legal battles on several fronts. Zuma handed himself into police on July 7, and was handed a 15-month jail term for defying an order in February to give evidence into corruption during his leadership, which he denies. The commission has heard damning testimony from former Cabinet ministers and top executives of state-owned corporations that Zuma allowed members of the wealthy Gupta family to influence his Cabinet appointments and the awarding of lucrative state contracts. Zuma also faces 16 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering related to the 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military gear from five European arms firms when he was deputy president. His trial is set to resume in August. Curtin University associate professor Kantha Dayaram completed a doctorate on public policy in South Africa as it transformed into a democracy and believes deeply entrenched economic issues are at the heart of the latest problems. “What is taking place currently, this outbreak of civil unrest, looting, rioting, destruction of businesses and deaths, is coming on top of the economic crisis and the health impact of the pandemic,” she said. “These things are not stoked by a single incident. If Zuma walked out of jail today, these issues wouldn’t go away, and normalcy wouldn’t be restored. It’s much more complex.” This included the Employment Equity Act and Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act, which sought to create equity across the workforce and in business ownership. Professor Dayaram said subsequent governments had failed to adequately implement and monitor these reforms. “It has been more successful in the public sector, however the private sector continues to exclude black African people from the labour market, despite black African people being the majority,” she said. “Almost three decades later and it remains a very inequitable society. They made early strides in the early 2000s, and the percentage of the population below the middle-income poverty line fell from 68 to 57 per cent, which was good progress,” she said. But she said this progress has been undone since then, particularly since Zuma took over in 2009. “The majority of his presidency, these policies have not been implemented the way they were intended, instead what we saw was corruption becoming more rife.” One of the key planks of post-apartheid reform was the removal of the Group Areas Act, which had separated people into geographical areas based on race. But Professor Dayaram said while people could move and purchase property wherever they liked, affordability and unemployment made it difficult for those on the fringes to move closer to economic hubs. “As a result, 70 per cent of land allocation remains as it did under the apartheid era,” she explained. “So yes Jacob Zuma has gone to prison, but that is a symptom of the causes, and the causes come back to this income disparity and high unemployment levels that must be addressed so the country can have economic stability and growth. “Otherwise we are going to continue to see these fires stoking up and erupting.” DAUTNING ROAD AHEAD Zuma’s successor and Mandela disciple, African National Congress President Cyril Ramaphosa, now faces the enormous task of reviving the economy amid a pandemic, holding together his fractured party — factions of which still support Zuma — and tackling the issues at the heart of the recent unrest, which he described as an insurrection. “Through social media, fake news and misinformation they have sought to inflame racial tensions and violence,” he said. “This attempted insurrection has failed to gain popular support among our people. It has failed because of the efforts of our security forces and because South Africans have rejected it,” he said after the riots. There is widespread anger across the country over delays to deploying the army, and Mr Ramaphosa conceded the government could have acted sooner. His government is said to be discussing a possible relief grant to alleviate suffering. Professor Dayaram said addressing chronic unemployment, particularly among disenfranchised young people, through more low skilled jobs and affordable, accessible transport to job centres, would go some way to tackling the economic crisis. “Hopefully, as the country transitions into more accountable policies, we can start to see progress again take place the way it did in the early 2000s,” she said. “I do believe it’s possible. We have seen progress, and with concerted good governance, and community groups coming together in the way we have seen to defend against the looting, the will of the people is there.” The riots coincided with lockdown measures taken to control the third wave of coronavirus infections that have pushed hospitals to capacity, and caused South Africa’s economy to contract the most it has in a century. South Africa has been on virus alert level 4, its second highest level, since late June, with public gatherings theoretically banned. Guateng, one of the two districts impacted by the riots, and home to 25 per cent of the population, is also the country’s COVID-19 epicentre. It has recorded more than 800,000 cases since the start of the pandemic. The national COVID death toll stands at 66,676 with the total number of cases at 2.28 million. Now, the recent violence is forecast to cost the country about 50 billion rand ($4.6 billion) in lost output and jeopardised at least 150,000 jobs. Anita Streicher, who lives in the Western Cape, described the current climate as turbulent. “People are suffering not having jobs, everyone — black, white, all races are affected by the anarchy of the looting and the police’s incapability to control the criminal element of this so-called ‘revolt’,” she said. “Furthermore, the government’s incapability of ruling the country fairly and justly is affecting more and more people everyday. “The cost of living in South Africa has become very expensive and is continuing to rise with basic living standards lacking. The lockdown has closed down several businesses countrywide ... the devastation it has on businesses is worrying and has now reached a point of no return.” Mrs Streicher said while she held out hope for a better future for her family, she felt the country faced further hardship. “Many high-middle class people who can afford it leave the country to relocate to New Zealand or Australia, but this is very expensive and financially not possible for many people,” she said. FAR FROM HOME South African expats living in WA can only watch on with horror. . Reeva Cutting — who has lived in WA for eight years and writes a regular blog about expat life — said she had woken every morning in a panic until she has heard from her dad, who lives close to the scene of riots in Waterfall, near Durban, telling her he is safe. She said her emotions had ranged from anger, fear, guilt — that she was safe while her family were trapped in their homes, gunshots echoing around them — and sadness at being so far away from them. “It has been really hard to process, it has been absolutely horrific. This extreme event has highlighted just how dangerous it can be for everybody who remains there,” she said. “We have fears and concerns for the personal safety and financial survival of our friends and family in SA. People have lost livelihoods overnight. Income gone. Jobs gone. Clients gone. Property gone.” Ms Cutting said the political situation was extremely complex and misinformation was rife. Text messages warning of more protests against Zuma’s imprisonment were being sent around as recently as Friday. Despite the despair of recent weeks, Ms Cutting said she had hope for a prosperous future. That hope is driven by the South Africans who banded together during, and in the hours after, the riots. They blocked entrances to shopping centres as the rioters marched towards them, armed themselves to form roadblocks and rallied to clean up and rebuild those areas hardest hit. And it was seen in the open arms from the strangers below a young mother as she put her trust in them, and dropped her daughter to safety. “They are the ones who have stood up against the threats of violence to their homes and businesses and local community ... They are the ones who have turned up with their brooms and are now clearing up the mess,” Ms Cutting said. “I’ve seen images of seniors armed with paintball guns. Women armed with hockey sticks. And many people — black, white, Indian, coloured, you name it — armed with nothing but a broom to start cleaning. “This is the true spirit of South Africa and what we need to hold onto. For if we lose all hope now, there is no turning back.”