Almost every week it seems we are hearing of some or other march taking place.
We have a march against crime. And then we have a march against unemployment. And then we have a march to raise awareness about woman and child abuse.
Recently, there was a protest march outside the National Treasury’s office, demanding for the fuel levy to be revised. This was a march organised by the DA, who was joined by the Freedom Movement, political parties, religious bodies, civil society organisations and ordinary South Africans.
The crux of the matter was that the fuel levy, in its current form, is an unjust tax on the poor.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come up with that conclusion. And if the government doesn’t know that it is crippling the poor with VAT and the fuel price, then we are not just teetering on the edge of the abyss, but we have fallen into the void already.
And along with marches, we find time after time memorandums being handed over to someone from some or other political or government office.
Where these memorandums go is anyone’s guess. Is there some kind of big vault? Do they land up alongside all the missing socks?
If we have to get serious, these memorandums probably land up in a bin as soon as the door is shut while the protesters jump up and down out of pure joy believing they have won.
Here in Boksburg, we bear witness to plenty of peaceful marches and walks, and memorandums handed over as if this will magically produce jobs or homes, or that men will start treating women with dignity.
It is almost like these marches have become some sort of sport all on its own or some kind of pastime.
There was a time when you would actually jot down what it is a hobby on your CV. Today, nobody really cares anymore if you love writing or you like ice skating after dark, just saying. I think today a lot of people would be tempted to write walking for some or other cause as being their activity of leisure.
I do understand the motivation and the purpose of walking, or marching, but really, does it make any difference whatsoever?
Consider, the march of the walk is held to raise awareness regarding a certain issue.
Yet, we all know that abuse against women and children is out of control.
We all know that the government is ripping us off regarding fuel levies.
We all know that crime is out of control.
We all know that unemployment has reached critical status.
We all know the people do not have homes.
We all know drugs are out of control, mostly because of our country’s lack of morals and values, which exacerbate our levels of crime.
And if we do not know these things, then we are either living under a rock, or we have become a hermit hiding in a tree, cut off from any form of social media or a communication platform.
After all, if we say we are raising awareness, then this must surely be something that we are not aware of. Or does my logic fail me?
So we march with posters pleading for the end of crime, or unemployment, or domestic abuse, singing slogans as if we are protesting the Vietnam War, yet what does all of this achieve?
Again, we are all, at least I hope, aware of such atrocities happening in South Africa and Boksburg.
To raise awareness, and to hand over memorandums will not alleviate or solve the problem. And if our government is not aware of such problems, then we might as well all right now apply to stay in Canada and freeze to death.
So my questions remain, what is the outcome of such a walk or march? It is surely not really to raise awareness because we are very much aware of the ills that plague society.
We rather need NGOs and the government and all other role players who can sit down and come up with concrete plans to address such nightmares.
And hopefully, the money allocated will not go missing.
There is a famous whiskey brand with a slogan of keep on walking. The idea works in that case, but here in South Africa where land expropriation will become a reality more real than the e-tolls disappearing, I fear to keep on walking does not score us any bonus points, or will not lead us to any promised land.
We will more be like Forest Gump, always walking and running, but for us, life is not really like a box of chocolates, but rather like a box of explosives and poisonous mushrooms.
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