For weeks our social media accounts, Twitter to be more accurate, saw increasing and regular communication regarding a national shutdown to take place in March of 2023. The EFF took to social media to mobilize the masses of the country to take part in what was meant to be a nationwide protest against the ruling party, to highlight the issues that many South Africans continue to struggle with.
These issues are well documented, among them
being the high rate of unemployment, poverty, a dwindling healthcare system,
challenges with education, gender based violence and many more. The national
shutdown was meant to bring to the ruling party the grievances that many South
Africans faced and subsequently seek solutions.
Days before the shutdown the country was on high
alert. Apart from the shutdown itself there were also many strikes either
happening or looming. Our government would subsequently deploy the army and
increase police visibility to try and curb what many thought would be a repeat
of the riots that took place in July of 2021.
March 20th came around and law enforcement
made its position well known that they will not tolerate any criminal
behaviour. The news was covering every possible angle of these stories and many
people watched as we expected our streets to be littered with members of an
angry population looking for urgent and much needed change.
Now while Pretoria had a sizeable crowd that
would march as planned, the rest of the country’s streets were quiet. In the
Western Cape a crowd of about 200 protesters gathered however it failed to grow
into anything larger than that.
The day proceeded as any normal day with
little disturbances reported in comparison to the July Unrest. Then the
following day rolled by. Human Rights’ Day, and the Secretary General of the
ANC, FIkile Mbalula would address the media regarding the shutdown.
He
would continue to comically, somewhat, refer to the shutdown as unsuccessful.
His reasoning? Well, he mentioned how he believed that the people of South
Africa would not support such a movement and would continue to praise South
Africans for their lack of engagement in a movement which he had previously
labeled a flop.
The so-called shutdown failed to materialise because South Africans refused to be co-opted into an anti-democracy agenda that sought to undermine the authority of the state and remove a democratically elected government through nefarious and undemocratic means. https://t.co/1neVE9cgpp pic.twitter.com/QG8yyDp1hy
— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Cde Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) March 23, 2023
While it was interesting to hear his insights
during that media briefing, one needs to wonder whether the SG all but gave a
tone deaf response to the outcome of the shutdown. His praise of the public’s
lack of participation had an undertone of the SG alluding to the fact that the
ANC saw this as a form of support. And while he may not have said these words
exactly, his confidence certainly spoke volumes in the direction of this
observation.
But could it be that the national shutdown was
a failure not because the public support the ANC, but rather that the public is
tired of voicing out grievances to a tone deaf ruling party? Should the ANC not
be concerned that the failure of the shutdown means the public is now burnt
out? Could it mean that the voters which they will be canvassing for, for 2024
are apathetic?
As for the EFF, what does this say about them
and their support? They called a national shutdown, flooded our social media
feeds with information yet they were not able to get a response equating to the
number of members in their party?
And what does this mean for South African
politics? Currently the average voter will tell you that they don’t see the
point of voting as there honestly isn’t a political organisation presenting
anything different. Even the attempts at coalition governments has been met
with dismal results. What if the public sees that there’s nowhere to go and
decides to take matters into their own hands? What then? How smug will the SG
be when he sees that the failure of the national shutdown doesn’t necessarily
mean success and support of, or even confidence in the ANC?
Inspired thinking
