Liberty and the law

From the perspective of the South African Struggle and current society.

In South Africa we have a problem, a big problem.

The fact that many people here do not view it as a problem is a problem in itself. The problem is breaking the law in many little ways, such as speeding, not obeying traffic signals, stealing, absenteeism from work, tax avoidance and so on. You may say that is the same all over the world, I agree, but in here in South Africa, a culture of civil disobedience exists.

As usual, I will try give a little background to the South African Situation.

Until 1994, black people had been marginalised and not part of mainstream basic rights as enjoyed by the white communities. Rights such as sanitation, refuse removal and even electricity did not exist for the majority of the country’s inhabitants. Education was second class when compared to their white counterparts. This of course led to the Soweto Uprisings in 1976 when Afrikaans was forced on Black schools as a medium of instruction.

When a people are disenfranchised or deprived of their political right to vote, what options exist?

The apartheid system feared the mobilisation of the Black masses and attacked any organisation or leaders that could be viewed as opposing the then current state of affairs. The only real option that the resistance leaders had was to use the weapon of the boycott. This basic act, was low escalation which might protect the protesters from an aggressive Police Force.

In 1944 under the old United Party when Jan Smuts was the Prime Minister, the Black people in Alexandra were confronted with a price hike in the bus fares. They refused to take the buses to get to work and walked, the even tiny increase in bus fares were more than they could afford. Their wages were below subsistence minimum levels. In 1940 a Commission of Inquiry into the operation of bus services for non-Europeans was set up. Four or five years later, the Commission concluded that Africans could not afford to pay increased fares, in fact they said that the Africans could not afford to pay anything and that their minimum food requirements could not be met. The strategy of Smuts at the time was to drag anything out, attempting to postpone dealing with the issue of Black emancipation. But the Government of the day (United Party) was fairly sensitive to public pressure despite “standing aloof” from the dispute.

However, in 1956 and 1957, the attitude of the Nationalist Party Government was intransigent and immovable. Black attitudes were starting to harden due to broken promises and unrealised expectations. This time the bus boycott endured for over three months, also it had spread from Alexandra to other cities. It must also be remembered that black communities were segregated on the outskirts of the more affluent white communities and cities, so very long walks had to be endured both ways. They started walking before the sun rose and only got home after the sun set. Intimidation by the police force was used against the walking boycotters; people crossing the streets not at robots were jailed, because white motorists gave lifts, the police stopped cars of sympathetic motorists and took tape measures to ensure that each passenger had a minimum of 15 inches to sit on, no less! Many thousands were arrested.
An appropriate analogy to consider is the clenched fist holding porridge; the more you squeeze it, the more will ooze out between your fingers. The more the Government squeezed and tried to suppress Black consciousness , the more their fears were realised and the bigger and stronger the opposition became, ironically by their very actions they accelerated the process.

Other boycotts were used over the years, despite the suffering the Black communities had to endure. One of the boycotts was not to pay for rent in Soweto, which included electricity from 1986. (The major supplier of electricity is a semi state institution called Eskom. At that time about 35% of all South Africans had electricity. Today the ANC government has brought electricity to more than 85% of the inhabitants of the country.) The ANC encouraged this defiance in 1986 to bring about the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. Nelson Mandela has been freed and a democratic government installed. Yet the majority of Soweto residents still do not pay their electricity bills over 30 years later.

Of course the question is why?
Can a simplistic answer suffice? I don’t believe it can. There are many factors to consider, how one would weigh them could depend upon one’s political preferences. Can a person really be impartial? Do we have enough information, do I have enough information to make such a cavalier response?

Let’s try find some more things that could add to the above and help us in trying to establish whether a pattern can be found or not. You must also bear in mind my existing prejudices and mind set. I may like to think that I am impartial but am I really? Can I be? I can only present some observations and let you decide.

Firstly, in the White communities, I could be inclined to say that we are more subservient than our Black counterparts to aspects such as law and respecting industry. It is relatively easy to accept when one realises that industry and the government were aligned with the White. For Black people, decades of exploitation by industry and the prejudice of the legal system against them, mean that there is no confidence in expecting fair play from the system.

Secondly, it is extremely difficult to reverse a culture of non-payment. How much has the general plight of the poor changed in this country? Except for the elite few in the new power structures and cronyism (looking after own family members under favouritism) which includes massive corruption in their own benefit, very little has changed for the majority of the poor. Crass attempts at social engineering via Affirmative Action policies, Employment Equity and Quota systems are too slowly making a difference. The irony is that the second grade education provided by township schools in the old Apartheid days was better in general when compared to what is being currently offered. How can an entire nation be lifted up after decades of neglect?

Thirdly, the law enforcement agencies, such as the police and traffic departments, are poorly trained (in general) and observance of the law poorly enforced. If one wants to avoid accidents, never just go through a robot (traffic light?) when a green light is showing before looking either way, chances are, someone is racing through.

Fourthly, the culture as set by the existing political leadership, is one of corruption and theft on an unprecedented scale. The moral compromises made as an imperative for the success of the “Struggle” will only injure the offender the most. As so often quoted from a 19th century British Politician Lord Acton, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. He further went on to say the lesser known part of the phrase “Great men are almost always bad men”.

So people are free, liberty has been won at great cost: blood, lifetimes, money, integrity, sorrow, suffering and hatred. Make no mistake, general freedoms are so much more for the ordinary man today. However, the journey has only just begun, I believe the young must take over from the older generation. There is much forgiveness and tolerance, even a new spirit but the old generations must pass away. The young must never take for granted the sacrifices of those who have gone on before.

We must remember, but the past must not shackle our future.

This country is a miracle of making a good choice while under Mandela; other lands are dying in the poison of hatred, they could not make a good choice, their hatred was too strong.

Each day is new with promise, looking forward must be our focus.

for my information sources, I looked at some of the writings of Ruth First, an activist and editor of the Guardian until it was banned. She was killed in 1982 when she opened a letter bomb sent by an Apartheid Government agent when she was in exile in Maputo. If you could look at her life story and her journalism, you would see a brave woman. Well worth the effort.