
Why you should continue to stomp, scream and stand up to make the most of SA’s democracy
Nelson Mandela is quite notorious today — in some circles at least. Many South Africans feel that they’ve been sold out, with their parents buying into the pie-in-the-sky rainbow nation bullshit. And rightly so, twenty-something years on and an estimated 30.4-million people are impoverished, there’s barely any growth, inequality is soaring and things aren’t all as great as we think it should be. Not enough has changed.
The same wheel that gave us corrupt politicians with cozy elites 40 years ago under Apartheid is still turning today in our fledgling democracy. The same lines between communities that were built before are still standing in 2017.
The only difference today — and this is a big one — is the fact that we have the capacity to shape the systems we’re born into, whether that be through reading, sharing, writing or standing up for your identity.

Yes, we — especially black people — have reasons to feel betrayed. But at least today we have the right to voice how we feel, and act accordingly. Not to promote excuses, democracy in itself rarely helps economies grow, not to mention overcoming centuries of economic trauma’s enduring scars. Instead, democracy gives recipients the capacity to overcome these challenges through activism — and that agency is something we should take most advantage of.
And on the grander scale of things, it might seem ironic that while the 21st century witnessed the most democracies ever established, it’s also seen an unprecedented amount of popular movements against democratically-elected governments. People are pissed all over. And similar to South Africans, the fact that they are faced with grievances certainly isn’t a sign of democratic progress, the fact that they can know about them and stand up for their opinions certainly are.
From Guatemala, Bulgaria, Venezuela to Ukraine, Thailand, Macedonia, Spain, Iceland, Hungary, Moldova, Brazil and Poland — all these governments were recently challenged and some of them forced to step down by mass-based popular uprisings.
But Africa seems to serve as a sort of microcosm of global trends. There were five times more protests in 2014 than in 2000 on the continent. For better or worse — while each vary in context — when considered collectively, they tend to raise fundamental questions about democracy and what this system means in the contemporary moment, globally.
As well placed in Africa Uprising, protests are seen as a collective force for political change which has emerged across the continent. In the book, US academics Mampilly and Adam Branch identified the common drivers behind protests in Africa, with case studies ranging from those in Nigeria to Ethiopia and all around the continent.

The authors characterised the 21st century wave of protests as the so-called Third Wave, which follows the First Wave of decolonisation and the Second Wave of democratisation. This wave could be characterised by a renewed sense of activism whereby ordinary Africans, often not driven by political parties, are addressing socio-economic injustices from grassroots.
“Many of these protests, they may be triggered by economic crises or electoral crises, but they are more often part of these broader movements that question the meaning of democracy in the contemporary moment,” Mampilly told me during an interview in Cape Town.
“You are a young African, who put a lot of faith in the idea that democracy is going to be this road to prosperity, it is coming up rather hollow in this moment.”
And rightfully so, protest has been a very effective tool for many Africans’ issues. In October 2015 South African students and low-paid university workers won the battle for a 0% fee increase for 2016, among other demands. In 2012, the Nigerian government was forced to lower oil cost to after series of strikes nearly paralysed the country for two weeks. In 2014 mass demonstrations overthrew president Blaise Compaoré from Burkina Faso.
Another post comes to mind from Save SA’s Sipho Pityana highlighting the recent accomplishments of activism in South Africa. Civil society has accomplished the following:
1. Brian Molefe and Ben Ngubane are no longer at the helm of Eskom.
2. KPMG, McKinsey and Bell Pottinger — Gupta’s professional enablers are in deep trouble.
3. Our sleepy Parliament has been forced to hold inquiries into state capture.
4. PRASA saved billions from a corrupt contract.
5. Ntlemeza, Jiba and Mrwebi are gone.
6. Even politicians can no longer dispute the evidence of the capture of our state.
7. You’ve made the removal of Zuma the central discussion in the ANC.
8. You’ve stopped the nuclear deal.
9. You’ve ensured South Africa remains part of the International Criminal Court.
10. You’ve stopped the capture of SABC.
11. You’ve built consensus on social grants.
12. You’ve improved the independence of the Hawks and IPID. (We still have to ensure that the right person is appointed to head the Hawks but that’s a battle for another day).
13. You’ve exposed the SARS rogue unit narrative as a scam.
14. You’ve inspired Makhosi Khosa.
According to a recent study by Washington-based Pew Research Centre, many Kenyans, South Africans and Nigerians believe that ordinary citizens can have a lot of influence on government. Furthermore, it is more common to attend a political campaign event in these three nations than it is in the US. Mampilly is cautiously optimistic about the future of the continent and what this trend represents about citizens’ character.
“For too long, there’s been the assumption that democracy simply mean the presence of elections,” Mampilly says. “Simply holding elections is thought to be the gold standard of a democracy. But then you look at what democracy actually means, from a broader perspective — rule of the people. It’s certainly unclear that elections are the best mechanism through which to capture the desire of the population.”
And while a lot of people should continue to be pissed of at the state of things, we should embrace our sense of activism, and not take that right for granted. We should continue to read up about our country’s problems, listen to challenging opinions of others and speak out against assholes impeding your — and especially those of your fellow South African’s — capacity to do so.
