part of no part

In the early hours of Monday 31 August 2015, hundreds of residents took to the streets and began what was to become a two weeks long protest march. For two weeks residents blockaded the roads and disrupted the everyday rhythm of their exploitation and oppression.  The target, AngloPlatinum,  who has for decades been at the centre of violating their Right to Food, their Right to Water, their Right to Housing and their Right to a Healthy Environment. As a result, many workers at the Mogalakwena mine could not report for work.  Protesters burnt down and vandalised a part of the Mapela traditional authority offices, the chiefs’ house and the community development infrastructure provided by the mine, including the sports stadium and the agricultural project at Ga-Chaba. Many of the protesters rarely visited their homes during the strike. They sang and demonstrated on the streets day and night. Women cooked meals along the road for everyone. Villagers put together s...

Yesterday`s march in Pretoria, besides the less than spectacular turnout, was marked by a separation between the people and the VIP`s I am told. The stage was separate from the people and some "bigwigs" were walking around with VIP passes hanging around their necks. Have we learnt nothing? It is in the first instance this division between the "masses" and their leaders that births the mistaken notion that the leadership is somehow more intelligent, more equal and more deserving than the masses. It is this separation that passes power to a leadership that becomes so removed from the people they are meant to represent, that they instead become the antithesis of democracy. Democracy, or rather the lack thereof and corruption are deeply interlinked as I pointed out previously . This unholy fascination with VIP`s and elites, even within the movements of the left are essentially a part of what Karl Marx calls “ the democratic swindle ”. The democratic ...