Look at France and beware the genie of protests, ANC

A drama which is unfolding 9 000km away from South Africa, on the streets of French cities and towns, has lessons for us here.

The “yellow vest” movement began as a protest against a proposed French government increase in fuel taxation, to be brought in next year. It sparked riots and protests across the country by ordinary people from all walks of life. French society began to coalesce around a single grievance.

President Emmanuel Macron – who once scathingly referred to demonstrators as “lazy” and “cynical” – was forced to back down … first by agreeing to postpone the tax hike, and then by cancelling it altogether.

That has not stopped the protests, which are now more about a general feeling of anger among the French working class and poor, who are increasingly getting squeezed while the rich, apparently, get richer.

In South Africa, there is a similar imperious approach to e-tolls, the government stops short of calling us “cynical” or “lazy”, but enlists all sorts of other quasi-insults to imply the middle class – which would bear the brunt of the system – was selfish or spoiled and wanted everything for nothing.

Like Macron, the ANC government under-estimated the feelings of motorists, who boycotted the system in such numbers that the action constituted the first mass defiance of the authorities since 1994.

It looks as though the ANC will continue its doublespeak on e-tolls until after next year’s election – and, once votes are secured, will move to forcibly collect money.

However, we would warn them: Ask Macron how successful that approach has been. Once the genie of protest is out of the bottle, it is difficult to put back in. Oppose the people when they have a genuine grievance and you could well see them coalesce into a genuine, hard to contain revolt.

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