Violent protests: Don’t let this chance pass us by as well

Whatever you want to call it, it’s been coming.

Whether an anti-poverty uprising, an insurrection, an attempted coup, it has been in the post since 2011 when we watched Tahrir Square and thought: “Angry people make things happen for themselves. How long before they do that here?”

It has been coming as long as there have been service-delivery protests. Over 20, 25 years has it been? Since we have been unable to build houses that last and roads that cohere, and to deliver reliable water and electricity to our people in neighbourhoods that function close enough to cities with jobs that pay liveable wages.

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As long as we have been shooting, arresting and beating those of our people with the temerity to demand a tolerable life for themselves and their families – if not outright ignoring them.

For as long as we have marvelled at the stats about 40, 50, 60… what is it? 70% unemployment? Gini coefficients so high they are unrivalled worldwide. Stats so skewed they are almost meaningless, and we have shuddered and thought, how long before these protests all just knit together, so it is not just Katlehong one day, and Cradock the next and Coligny the day after that. How long before our people all rise up at once?

We have marvelled at it hasn’t happened sooner.

We have thought how long before someone with something to gain by encouraging it, instead of just ignoring it and looking out for number one like everyone else, how long before someone like that just, you know, coordinates it?

We have thought it, and dreaded it. If we’re honest, we’ve expected it. Because no such inequality can exist this long without something giving way. No imbalance like this can be sustained. South Africans are incredibly patient, we have tried to tell ourselves. It is amazing what they are prepared to tolerate, we’ve said. But that has been a lie.

Because one thing we do know is that there is a point where our people’s patience runs out, and then they act.

Whether this whole thing is a long-overdue rising up against a generations-long injustice, or a cynical manipulation of our national shame for selfish vengeance, or a bit of both, we have known it has been on its way.

We have known.

The reckoning has been inevitable, and so we have done a bit to try to assuage our guilt, made some contributions where we can, and otherwise just tried to look after our people. Looking after number one, in our own ways, and wondered when those cows might come home.

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And eventually, ultimately, they have. Assuming this is indeed that ultimate shakedown.

Whatever it is, this has to be that moment of reckoning. When finally, after decades in denial, as a nation we start to actually do something to resolve the original sin that has infected us for so long.

An income grant, an economic sabotage law, a true corruption clampdown, a sincere commitment to making a real difference, to addressing the national mantra of fighting the triple scourge of poverty, inequality and unemployment, instead of once again just paying lip service.

It may well be too late, but if not, if once again, South Africans have pulled a miracle from the flames of disaster, then this may be our last chance.

And we dare not waste it.