Attacks on state property: Covert war or vandalism?

Criminality or part of the sinister plot against the state?

The jury is still out on that, following a spate of destructive vandalism, which one economist describes as “civil war against infrastructure”.

The burning of a Blue Train coach this week is the latest attack against property connected to the state, with some believing it is part of a low-key burgeoning insurrection.

The most recent incidents include parliament going up in flames, a man’s rampage with a hammer at the Constitutional Court, followed by a fire at the Air Force Base Waterkloof last week. The latter is still under investigation to establish if it was crime or negligence.

This week, the report by the expert panel into the civil unrest in July last year, was released. It found billions of rands of infrastructure in the private sector had been damaged.

Transnet spokesperson Ayanda Shezi said Transnet was investigating the fire that broke out at the Koedoespoort facility that saw the Blue Train coach set alight after it was sent in for repairs following a derailment last November.

ALSO REA: School vandalism: Western Cape targeted by burglars

Shezi said one person was apprehended by Transnet security, while two others remained at large. The United National Transport Union acting general secretary John Pereira said cable thieves allegedly stole a live electric cable from the coach.

“Transnet has experienced unprecedented crime and sabotage of its infrastructure in all its operational divisions over the past two years that has placed the previous financially sustainable state-owned enterprise in a cash flow crisis,” he said.

Political analyst Piet Croucamp said the fact that a lot of state infrastructure was being damaged could be coincidental.

“The targets were not the state but rather political power, it’s more a battle within society and the state is the target,” he said.

Croucamp said the state had become an economic target in both the private and state sector. Economist Mike Schussler said it was like a civil war against infrastructure. “We’ve lost more than R30 billion in coal exports
due to the vandalised infrastructure,” he added.

Schussler said the vandalism not only cost the state money to repair, it was money the state didn’t have. A criminologist at the University of Limpopo, Professor Jaco Barkhuizen said every person has a trigger or a motivational factor that comes into play when committing certain crimes.

“It may be frustration, deep-seated psychological issues, or political ideology. It depends on the person and the acts that are committed,” he said.

ALSO READ: Here is what Sona should cover on Thursday

“However, in South Africa with our deepening socioeconomic problems and rising unemployment and inequality, one can not dismiss frustration with the state of South Africa as a potential cause.”

Barkhuizen said some people get a psychological kick from starting fires and watching things burn, which was called pyromania and was a paraphilic disorder.

“However, with the recent spate of fires and burning of state entities, it seems more to be politically motivated than paraphilic.

“If you looked closely at what has happened in a larger societal context, you will start to see these crimes are not just one-off crimes but that there seems to be a method, maybe political, maybe something else, behind the current madness,” he said.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za