South Africa’s government may be broken but South African people are not.

 

Citizen of Ekhuruleni at the clean-up campaign at Mayfield Mall on July 14, 2021 in Daveyton, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images/OJ Koloti).

There are several examples on the ground of ordinary folks reducing the damage caused by populist stormtroopers.

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t the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) hearings on the attempted insurgency in July 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa admitted who was responsible for containing the catastrophic bloodshed and cleaning it up afterwards.

"It was the people of South Africa who worked to restore calm and safeguard lives, property, and infrastructure in a peaceful and legal manner."

On April 1, the President stated, "The assault on our democracy failed because the people of South Africa will not allow it."

The July attacks, which killed more than 350 people and cost the economy R50 billion, happened after former President Jacob Zuma was sentenced to prison for contempt of court.

Public threats made by Zuma's family, followers, and acolytes on social media fueled the violence.

Ramaphosa's appreciation of the crucial contribution of ordinary South Africans in thwarting a regional coup attempt is significant.

The president admitted that the state could not safeguard its citizens, and that the state could not even protect them from elements within the ANC.

In Ramaphosa's description of the murder and sabotage that week, there was no "big guy" hyperbole, only a tint of grief in his stunning admission that the country had peered into "the heart of darkness."

Those who "plotted to undermine this very country we have spent the previous 28 years establishing" had caused "the worst sense of betrayal," according to the President.

"Try as they may, they didn't turn us against each other," he added. South Africans, on the other hand, joined together like never before."

Ramaphosa's perspective symbolizes an anemic residue of some distant ANC's scarcely beating heart, which embraced diversity and was a "wide church" of contentious beliefs that embraced the values of constitutionalism, restitution, and redistribution.

But greed, hyperbole, and paid spin firms got in the way, and public employees let a global criminal syndicate tied to Zuma steal billions of rands in public monies.

The redistribution took place primarily among the wealthy.

On the ground, true South Africans were left unprotected and shattered by a brutal epidemic mismanaged by a crumbling and corrupt government, whose officials teamed up with their pals to commit massive PPE-procurement money-laundering sprees.

Stealing from your people during a pandemic is still a crime against humanity, in our opinion.

The Constitution's nuts and bolts were put to the ultimate test during this period, as lawfare became a way of life not only for the political elite, but also for civil society and the political opposition, when Zuma wielded total power.

Zuma's followers claim that the Constitution "stands in the way of majority liberation."

Finally, in 2017, two small non-governmental organizations, Earth Life Africa and the Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute, won a constitutional challenge to Zuma and Russian President Vladimir Putin's secret R1-trillion nuclear energy deal negotiated between the South African government and Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear energy corporation.

The Stalingrad tactic is hobbling along in courtrooms like a zombie.

Zuma, who is now out on a dubious granted parole, and the Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who is currently facing impeachment, are both employing the Stalingrad tactic, which is hobbling along like a zombie haunter of courtrooms.

Ramaphosa's vision of citizens and our response to the July violence fits well into the writer's definition of "positive nationalism," as defined by Canadian writer and philosopher John Ralston Saul.

In the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, nationalism has reared its ugly head, wreaking havoc.

The "they" referred to by Ramaphosa in his SAHRC statement, the perpetrators, agitators, and bloodthirsty, are motivated by Saul's concept of "negative nationalism."

This, according to Saul, is a manifestation of a national identity or self-view based on ethnic allegiance, which frequently includes appropriation of a god(s), a certain pride in ignorance, and "a belief that one has been permanently injured, terribly harmed."

This crude nationalism is exemplified by Donald Trump and the Proud Boys, as well as the increase of xenophobic, Islamophobic, and antisemitic sentiments in the United States, Europe, and Africa.

In our own state, a region stares vacantly into the past's graves eternally. Politics becomes archaeology in this setting, and a complex future in a fast changing world seems unimaginable.

Positive nationalism, or civic solidarity, on the other hand, is a state in which one sees the self in the other and one's fate is connected together, according to Saul.

"A belief in the positive tension of ambiguity and the primary role of choice," he defines positive nationalism.

"Citizens feel at ease with this complexity because they are anchored into a fundamental view of themselves and others as part of a civic commitment" in such a state.

What has kept us together has been South Africa's variety, its recent history, and the struggle for a democratic, developmental state based on the Constitution.

On the ground in South Africa, there are several examples of regular folks minimizing the damage caused by populist stormtroopers.

Vegetables are grown and shared, potholes are repaired (in some cases by kids), food is distributed by NGOs and people, and money is collected to assist with funerals and school fees.

Some may have "sought to push for violence and disorder along ethnic lines" at the onset of the July "unrest," Ramaphosa admitted. We know that the vast majority of our people have refused to be mobilized along these lines on moral grounds. "Tribalism was rearing its ugly head in this occasion," the President added, referring to a manifestation that the ANC's founders "sought to eliminate from the South African political and social landscape."

A government collapse allows populist parties like the EFF and individuals like Operation Dudula's Nhlanhla "Lux" Dlamini to use grudges disguised as political ambitions or philosophy to create an environment of perpetual danger of violence and turmoil, all for personal/political benefit.

In July 2021, however, South Africans rejected violence, instability, and populism.

Because of the poor results in the November local elections, the EFF liquidated its structures in Limpopo, Julius Malema's home province, in January of this year. That is also a significant issue.

If we survive this age of responsibility, there is still enough in our collective political DNA to get us out of the hole that so many leaders have helped to build.

Ramaphosa was correct in singling us citizens for our opposition to terrorism and sabotage.

For the time being, love him or hate him and his party, Ramaphosa's voice has been a rare, steady one, cutting through the churn of populist noise and bluster (given the instability and criminality in the party he leads).

The good people who care about South Africa's future must rely on the better angels of ordinary people. We absolutely can no longer rely on our ruling party.