Africa-Press – South-Africa. For those who are voiceless, vulnerable, and ignored, Operation Dudula, and other self-styled vigilante groups, offer a collective that says matter of factly, where government has betrayed you, I have your back, writes Joy Owen.
How do we make sense of a social movement or social organisation like Operation Dudula?
I am uneasy making any pronouncements regarding its existence, as the reasons for its existence are multiple. These reasons are steeped in historical roots, including slavery, colonial oppression, and apartheid in South Africa, on the continent and globally. The reasons for its existence are found too within this very moment – wracked by a socio-political reality that suggests that our state is just ‘ticking’ over, increasing inequalities, precarity, and the external global context that impacts on all of us. For example – the war on the Ukrainian people; the ongoing mutilations occurring elsewhere – like the Congo, Sudan, the Palestinian Territories, and even the United States, the beacon of western wealth and excess. That the world is structured through racial capitalism, intersectional oppressions and even hate is often ignored in our discussions on crime, violence, and ongoing injustice in South Africa. This oversight fans the idea that South Africa is exceptional in its response to the degradation and humiliation of humans across centuries.I have your back For those who are voiceless, vulnerable, and ignored, Operation Dudula, and other self-styled vigilante groups, offer a collective that says matter of factly, where government has betrayed you, I have your back. How intoxicating that must be, to hear that someone will protect you in the face of increasing poverty, unemployment and a generalised lack of care for the ‘least’ among us.READ | Researcher reveals some of the key elements behind xenophobia in SAIn a short matter of time, what Nhlanhla Dlamini, the voice of Operation Dudula, has demonstrated is that South Africans need to create mass movements in order to be heard by those who govern – the state. That the elected leaders who we continue to put into power, whether through voting, spoiling our ballots, or not turning up at the polls, do not, in fact, listen, and as such, we need to create movements that not only threaten non-national others, but the state too. As Martin Luther King observed:It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.The nature of our history, the present moment, and the need for all South Africans, particularly the black working class and unemployed, to feel that they are included in the social compact of this country has created a seed-bed for violent forms of disruption. Disruptions are meant to catalyse change, change that includes rather than excludes. If you have been excluded from the wealth of your country, the joys of the land, the expression of self through language, the fruits of your labour, would you not rally for a violent means of retribution, especially when your humanity does not engender a response of care, appreciation and love? Would you not also, with nothing to lose, lay to waste what others enjoy? Would you not be willing to die, because dying a slow death is more painful than dying today, if needs be? Yet this is but part of the complex story of crime in South Africa. And a single story, as Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie warned, is not conducive to truth-telling or for that matter finding solutions. Allow me to play devil’s advocate. According to statistics released on Monday, the unemployment rate in South Africa is 34.5%; and the youth unemployment rate is 63.9%. Have you wondered, given these statistics, why the crime rate is not higher? We have one police officer for every 413 civilians. In a country of 59 million people that means what exactly? The majority of those living in South Africa are not committing crimes, even if we recognise that crimes are under-reported in South Africa; even if we understand that we will never have enough police officers to prevent crime. Think about it.READ | Tinyiko Maluleke: Let’s talk about jobs, Comrade MinisterDo we understand that most of those resident in South Africa, are law-abiding citizens? Do we understand that daily, men and women make a conscious choice not to rob another? They choose consciously not to extort money, or pay bribes, or speed on the roads, or hijack others, or sexually assault others. Do we recognise the power of that silent majority, going about their daily lives, living with a personal code of ethics that is so ingrained that they will not harm another? Have we considered them, or do we choose to ignore their existence because they are silent? Who gets the most airplay? And why?A larger ecologyAs an anthropologist I work in the minutiae of the every day. I am tasked through my discipline to understand how the dance between an individual and the broader society or societies they are a part of is mutually constructed. How the web of life, which you and I are an intricate part of, heaves every time an individual or individuals pull at one end, or in the centre. We are part of a larger ecology that is responsive to the other. And to understand the complexity of crime, we need to consider the system, not merely its parts. If we do this, wisdom might prevail as we admit that we are indeed all a part of a societal problem, and by implication the solution we are waiting for. So when you ask me, ‘who is responsible for crime in South Africa?’ I would tell you all of us. We are responsible for curbing it, eradicating it, and removing it. We are also responsible for supporting it, maintaining it and incubating it. READ | OPINION: Tawanda Matema: Populism and voting – Don’t blame migrants for country’s woesWhose responsibility is it then to ‘combat’ crime? Yours and mine. How? We need to build the social compact. We need to recognise the value and strength that exists in our co-relating. Recognise our responsibility to each other. Understand the dynamics of power, and how a collective response from the bottom up can manifest a different reality – Operation Dudula is a case in point. Yes. But so too are other community-driven organisations like Equal Education, and most noticeably ‘the Gift of the Givers’. There are other social connections too that don’t receive airplay; like those between African migrant and South African citizen; where helping each other is a norm, irrespective of race, gender, age or nationality. Multifaceted, multipronged approach In short, any solution to crime in South Africa will have to be multifaceted, multipronged and holistic. So yes, I, too, advocate that we need to eradicate poverty and ensure food security and active engagement in livelihoods that secure our collective well-being. And yes, we also need to do the hard labour to heal the individual and collective psyche. These conversations need input from psychologists, social workers, priests, doctors, and the unsung healers among us. For what ails us too is a psychic wound that originates in the past and is tended to, and consistently opened up in our present. You cannot heal what ails the country without a thorough consideration of the mind of South Africans, the mind of continental Africans, and the citizens of the world. We externalise traumas and violent experiences to relieve our collective suffering. We don’t know how to heal effectively without harming others, in large and small ways.READ | Mmusi Maimane: The beautyful ones have been born – South Africa’s best years are still to comeBut we also have authentic examples and embodiments of love, freedom, and truth. Leaders and healers live among us, quietly going about the work of holding South Africa together. They feed the hungry; they care for the children of single working mothers or fathers. They start community gardens at schools, investing time and energy. They share information on potential employment, ‘putting in a kind word’ for the young man down the street. They hustle to create viable and successful businesses that will secure the livelihoods of three or four families. They stand up for someone who is being degraded, or bullied. They talk a gun-man down. They rise into their voices as they commit to collective well-being. They hold each other accountable daily. With no police officers in sight. Do we count them? They might be silent, but they are the majority in this country. And they are the ones who give me hope.- Joy Owen is an Associate
Professor of Anthropology at the University of the Free State.
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