The Anarchy of Poverty

So Our President and the Governing ANC has officially declared the protests of the most marginalised of our society as Anarchistic and that communities should be encouraged to Protest peacefully.

"We reiterate that there are no grievances that can justify violence and the destruction of property. We have directed law-enforcement agencies to take a tougher stance on lawlessness in Balfour and other areas" Zuma was quoted as saying.

Peacefully is what you do when you drive a million Rand vehicle paid for by the people, Peacefully is what you do when you dine and party with an almost unlimited budget from the people, Peacefully is what you do when you are caught defrauding Parliament and the matter is peacefully swept under the carpet, Peacefully is what you do when you spend Billions of rands on Arms as opposed to health, housing, and jobs for the people.

The Call by the President for the people to "shut Up" or be "Shut up" by the State, is the height of Hypocrisy.
Was it not the current ANC leadership, who so enthusiastically called for their Machine Guns when they were standing outside the corridors of Power?

The Leadership called on the people to bring their machine guns to ensure that power was taken from the elite “Mbekites” , and policies put in place to benefit the marginalised ,but the people are still sitting on the outside looking in.

When the only vehicle of the poor and marginalised is your feet and the only party is the day you are lucky enough to have a full meal when the only roof over your head is made of sticks and corrugated metal, when the disregarded shack dwellers lack basic facilities such as water, ablution and health facilities, and are exposed to the indiscriminate violence of the Lumpin element, then Peacefully is not a term that comes easily.
The only reality is the violence of despair and poverty that robs you of your dignity.

How far have we come down this twisted road in which the Priorities of the People were once foremost on the Agenda? Today the priority is the semblance of normalcy; the return to the post colonial elitist society, the priority is the undisturbed accumulation of Wealth, Power and Privilege by the Ruling Class, albeit now with black faces included.

There remains in our society, those who have no determinate place in our social heirachy and thus they stand directly for "Universal Equality" They are those who do not feature on the Radar of the predatory commercial system for they have no income and likewise struggles to remain on the radar of the State as well. They are what Jacques Ranciere Calls the "part of no part". From Ancient Greece to the First majority government in South Africa in 1994, the struggle for the inclusion of this "part of no part' has informed all struggles for equality. It certainly will not suddenly dissapear today from the South African reality because some of the excluded have now been included.

There are non more excluded than the shack dwellers that exist behind the veil(and in some instances literally walls) of our "normal" society, and the continued and indeed increased allienation of this part of our society, is of great concern.

Abahlali baseMjondolo ( AbM – literally “Shack Dwellers' Movement”) reported that on September 26th 2008, a gang of forty armed men attacked the Kennedy Road shack-dweller community, an informal settlement in Durban, South Africa's second largest city. During the attacks, they killed two, displaced more than a thousand residents and torched homes. Facing death threats, leading members of the shack-dwellers' organization, Abahlali baseMjondolo on Kennedy Road are now living underground.

They Claim the gang was organized by local and regional African National Congress (ANC) leaders, with support of the local police. When called, police arrested not the ANC attackers but 13 members of Kennedy Road Development Committee, AbM's local affiliate. Although six detainees have since been granted bail, five languish in jail. During court hearings, local ANC activists mobilized, demanding the judge deny bail and threatening AbM supporters inside the court.

This disturbing occurrence, together with the now "official line" that these Protests are anarchist in nature and must be Crushed, Points to a deepening denial by the Governing Party of the realities facing the increasingly voiceless people of our Country.

What the Government and the ANC suggests is that the People must be patient and eventually the Government will resolve all our Problems.

History Suggests, however, that asking for patience from the people, is a way of trying to demobilise popular demands, of trying to "Buy Time" so that the "secret culture of politics" might hold sway.

The Government and the ANC then by implication also implies that a Good Citizen is one that dutifully waits with an outstretched hand for the Government to deliver the Promised Land.

History has taught us that the way to make Governments deliver rights to the people is not to wait, but to demand.

As we enter the third decade after the release of Nelson Mandela, the ANC would have us believe that demanding our rights is an anarchistic (here we could substitute, ultra left, Third force, counter revolutionary,) endeavour that should be silenced if we are to be good citizens and the government is to be allowed the opportunity to deliver on its promises.

I am sure that this call by Government will be met with Open arms and joyous support amoung the middle classes. What they may fail to see, however, is that this is just the beginning of a vicious narrative that has played itself out in many different settings and many different times.

O inglorious league!
Shall we, upon the footing of our land,
Send fair-play orders and make compremise,
Insinuation, parley, and base truce
To arms invasive?

Just like Bastard in Shakespeare`s King John, we are asked to accept fair play when we all know that fair play is capitulation. Fair Play in politics favours those in power only, not the voiceless impoverished 'part of no part'.

Shakespeare new it then, and so do we today.

If we remain silent in the face of ever increasing physical violence (as well as institutional violence) against those who have the least voice in our society, then we can rest assured that the state will not stop there.
If we continue to remain patiently sitting on the sidelines, waiting for our government to deliver to the most vulnerable of our society, we might soon find that the most vulnerable includes us.

If we do not acknowledge, Protect, and include the "part of no part", History will surely overtake us and the words of George bernard Shaw will ring hollow in the aftermath, " If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience. "

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