Is South Africa on the cusp of ‘Black Spring’?

Chris Maxon Correspondent
The black spring is hovering over South African skies. My assertion is based on some observations that I believe are telling. The transition to democracy led by the ANC has been trumpeted by many as the transition to neoliberalism.

Sadly, young people are the face and unwilling heirs of these failing policies.

Whether one wants to use unemployment (and bleak hope of employability), which is thumping young people the most, to substantiate the point or HIV/Aids — which while registering some progress remains the dark spot halting young people from dreaming of a brighter future — is irrelevant. Being young, black and South African offers no hope of a better and brighter future.

An area that we tend to shy away from is the stranglehold felt by young working people. With a high cost of living, high rental costs especially for the huge migrant working population, expensive transport costs and the exorbitant costs of education, for more than 67 percent of single parents, being a young working person does not offer comfort.

The high unemployment rate also adds to the anguishes young working people have to endure because of the number of mouths they have to feed at home. Even the social welfare offerings of the government are inadequate in the current economic climate.

The rowdy behaviour of parliamentarians does not help sustain good public confidence. Reports of rampant absenteeism and images of parliamentarians sleeping during sessions dampens our confidence.

We are also showered with reports of a Parliament obsessed with protecting certain individuals and perpetuating mediocrity. Parliament has been elevated to a superstructure that exists above and aloof of the citizenry. It has its own values and code divorced from the public’s. I can’t rationalise parliament’s failure to take bold decisions that will bolster public confidence on matters that in the public’s view are simple and straightforward. For example: a person with fake academic qualifications is a fraudster, finished and klaar!

Public support of and participation in the political discourse is also withering away. This is evident in the collapse of historical movements such as the PAC and the non-starter of those formed as splinter groups from the liberation movement and opposition parties. Similarly, the trade union movement faces the same waning membership although in the case of the trade union movements, people continue to pay subscriptions but don’t actively participate. While the political discourse is sharpened by the increased number of divergent voices, the issues and platforms that dominate expose the class shifts that have resulted since the democratic breakthrough.

Twitter, Facebook, Whats-App and online publications have become the most popular and influential platforms many leaders choose to engage in. Some leaders use Twitter to account, to whom I often ask myself.

We cannot be critical of this advancement especially in the light of its role in popularising the Arab, Hong Kong and Burkina Faso uprisings. However, we must note that they are not reaching the masses whose issues are very basic — food, high quality health care, quality education and access to jobs and services. It may be easy and politically correct to dismiss the assertion of a “ticking time bomb” or a hovering “black spring”, but the truth is that the murmurs of the frustrated youth and a people whose dream for a better and brighter future is deferred are becoming louder.

Ignoring these will only consolidate the resolve and determination of the affected people to cause a break with a trajectory that only promises to deepen poverty, inequality and unemployment. It would be naive to ignore lessons from the Arab spring, Hong Kong and Burkina Faso — frustrated masses will wait for no organisation or leader. In these instances, young people did not wait for an ideologically imbued political party to lead them but took to the streets instilled by daily frustrations and holding their dreams in their hands and hearts.

In South Africa, I fear, the uprisings will not only be organised and led by the unemployed and poor youths, but it will be led hand in hand with politically conscious, but demobilised working people who face the wrath of the socio-economic environment and political inertia of the congress movement to take bold and daring decisions in the interest of the majority of the people.