Ermelo Protests Turn Violent
By Vusi Moloi © 2011
South African residents of Wesselton near Ermelo in the province of Mpumalanga exploded into a militant protest on Tuesday for poor services or lack thereof. News24 quoted an unemployed Mr. Musa Moyo in their news report who pointed out that as residents they had no say in the drawn up list of candidates nominated to stand for elections in the Municipal Elections. Mr. Musa also complained about more women being hired while men were left out in the cold. This kind of trend (increasing jobless rate among African men) has given rise to a disturbing phenomenon that some feel seriously undermines the stability of the African family. Official unemployment figures stand at 25% but since the official methodology of these figures excludes those outside the last two weeks of job seeking, the actual unemployment rate is between 45% and 50%.
The live eNews TV coverage showed a White police officer firing live ammunition into the protesting crowd. A protestor was confirmed dead according to Captain Leonard Hlathi of the South African Police Services at Mpumalanga but it is not clear if police shooting killed him. The police first used rubber bullets to control the crowd but later switched to live ammunition. The protesters responded with rocks and everything they could find. An eNews cameraman had to be treated for slight injuries after a group of angry protesters attacked the news crew. The police had to run for their lives when an unstoppable wave of defiant young militants chased them out of the community.
Compassion Fatigue for the 1994 Miracle
There seems to be a growing compassion fatigue for the idealism of South Africa’s Rainbow Nation since the 1994 democratic dispensation in which the African natives turned out to be the economic losers of what was otherwise an internationally acclaimed peaceful revolution under the impressive leadership of the Nobel Prize winning legends like Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu and F.W. de Klerk. As things stand right now, less than 50 000 of White farmers control more than 80% of the food producing land while many African mothers scratch for food on the garbage dumps. In a traditional African society, it's the women who own the food producing land while the men tend the livestock. Without land, the African natives have become a reservoir of redundant low-priced labour. The reason for this is that the African natives in South Africa were handed a landless revolution which is not in itself sustainable over the long term. The fact that the African natives are economically disenfranchised despite 17 years of democracy poses a serious threat to the future stability of the beautiful land of the ancestors.
Object Lessons From the Egyptian Protests
The way the protesters were handled at Ermelo by police was in stark contrast to the manner in which the Egyptian protesters interacted with their security forces. In Ermelo there was a clear adversary relationship between the members of the law enforcement and the community while in Egypt the protesters were in a cordial relationship with the law enforcement. This shows that it is more dangerous to protest in Ermelo but safer to protest in Cairo.
This is incredible because in Egypt the protests threatened the very existence of the political establishment and yet the Egyptian law enforcement didn’t lose the trust or get into a violent confrontation with the protesters whereas in Ermelo where the protesters pose no threat to the political existence of the country, there is a clear breakdown of trust between the aggrieved community residents and the police who are supposed to protect them. Maybe the political leadership must take a page from the Egyptian peaceful revolution?
South African residents of Wesselton near Ermelo in the province of Mpumalanga exploded into a militant protest on Tuesday for poor services or lack thereof. News24 quoted an unemployed Mr. Musa Moyo in their news report who pointed out that as residents they had no say in the drawn up list of candidates nominated to stand for elections in the Municipal Elections. Mr. Musa also complained about more women being hired while men were left out in the cold. This kind of trend (increasing jobless rate among African men) has given rise to a disturbing phenomenon that some feel seriously undermines the stability of the African family. Official unemployment figures stand at 25% but since the official methodology of these figures excludes those outside the last two weeks of job seeking, the actual unemployment rate is between 45% and 50%.
The live eNews TV coverage showed a White police officer firing live ammunition into the protesting crowd. A protestor was confirmed dead according to Captain Leonard Hlathi of the South African Police Services at Mpumalanga but it is not clear if police shooting killed him. The police first used rubber bullets to control the crowd but later switched to live ammunition. The protesters responded with rocks and everything they could find. An eNews cameraman had to be treated for slight injuries after a group of angry protesters attacked the news crew. The police had to run for their lives when an unstoppable wave of defiant young militants chased them out of the community.
Compassion Fatigue for the 1994 Miracle
There seems to be a growing compassion fatigue for the idealism of South Africa’s Rainbow Nation since the 1994 democratic dispensation in which the African natives turned out to be the economic losers of what was otherwise an internationally acclaimed peaceful revolution under the impressive leadership of the Nobel Prize winning legends like Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu and F.W. de Klerk. As things stand right now, less than 50 000 of White farmers control more than 80% of the food producing land while many African mothers scratch for food on the garbage dumps. In a traditional African society, it's the women who own the food producing land while the men tend the livestock. Without land, the African natives have become a reservoir of redundant low-priced labour. The reason for this is that the African natives in South Africa were handed a landless revolution which is not in itself sustainable over the long term. The fact that the African natives are economically disenfranchised despite 17 years of democracy poses a serious threat to the future stability of the beautiful land of the ancestors.
Object Lessons From the Egyptian Protests
The way the protesters were handled at Ermelo by police was in stark contrast to the manner in which the Egyptian protesters interacted with their security forces. In Ermelo there was a clear adversary relationship between the members of the law enforcement and the community while in Egypt the protesters were in a cordial relationship with the law enforcement. This shows that it is more dangerous to protest in Ermelo but safer to protest in Cairo.
This is incredible because in Egypt the protests threatened the very existence of the political establishment and yet the Egyptian law enforcement didn’t lose the trust or get into a violent confrontation with the protesters whereas in Ermelo where the protesters pose no threat to the political existence of the country, there is a clear breakdown of trust between the aggrieved community residents and the police who are supposed to protect them. Maybe the political leadership must take a page from the Egyptian peaceful revolution?
posted by Vusi Moloi at
5:51 PM
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