The leaderless revolution is
here, but it is not what the zealots say it is both the far right and far left
are wrong about what the leaderless revolution in South Africa would look like
because both sides have no catalyzing figure to galvanize the cell like
structure of such a revolution. A leaderless revolution is conventionally
characterized by a martyr like figure taking a bold first step in creating a
culture of individuals that work toward a central ideological imperative
without direct communication links to a central point.
A leaderless revolution by design is hard to
suppress so the idea of a revolution such as this manifesting it’s self into a
violent terrorist enterprise that runs a whole government ungovernable would be
self-defeating, South African policing authorities are excellent at one thing
and one thing only, the violent suppression of organisation in public spaces
see; the Marikana massacre and the fees must fall protests. This means the
South African neo-anarchist must be wise to this fact, thus leading the
conclusion that the country being rendered ungovernable would be an unintended
consequence of the actions taken by the individuals in the collective. The problem
with the South African version of events is that desperation is a bigger
driving force than an ideological position.
“When the system fails you
fails you create your own system”- Michael K Williams. This statement
characterizes the peoples plight and sums up the reasoning behind the
revolution and justifies the attempt to usurp the power held by the centrist
body politic of the country that is clearly broken almost to the point of no
return.
Land
Invasion and occupation
In the current era it seems
that Julius Malema and his EFF have championed the task of bringing the
landless masses to some sort of revolutionary tipping point, when actually all
they did is bring one of the longest standing inefficiencies of governance to
be debated as process of urgently needed development. Land invasion is one of
the first forms of protesting inadequate governance which began with the
department of bantu affairs of yesteryear, the people built on unoccupied land
and claimed it as their own and in so doing usurped some power from the
apartheid government, noticeably this was one of the building blocks of the
resilience and audacity of the civil disobedience project and later the armed
struggle. This is why most of the proponents of the armed struggle were
transplants that came to Johannesburg as backroom and shack dwellers.
The EFF sought to co-opt this
reemerging energy of the people and become the de facto center of the common
man, but skepticism is rife among the electorate about how men and women who
live in mansions can champion such a struggle. People grabbing land will become
ever more prevalent as the people become ever more anxious.
The
Water and electrical crisis
We are all know about the
problems facing Eskom and in their desperation they raised tariffs on an
already poor society, this inevitably demanded ingenuity from the society, a
week or so ago Phakamani Hadebe of Eskom rightly diagnosed that one of the
problems facing the ailing parastatal is South Africans going off the grid,
there are a few options of going off the grid each method is deliberate in how
it usurps power from the state (no pun intended) here they are:
First is the very expensive route
of deep cycle rechargeable battery kits connected to solar panels which
adequately takes the burden of high tariffs off one's shoulders in the long run.
As I have already stressed that the exigent circumstances faced by the people
demands ingenuity so poor people somehow noticed that cell phone towers run off
deep cycle batteries and so they “liberate” the batteries and fulfill the needs
of the power hungry market, they sell the batteries to legitimate companies that deal in
alternative energy solutions.
The second method demands more
of an organised effort it involves something called “bridging” where the meter
system of a transformer is bypassed so that the particular transformer is not
technically on Eskom's system, this essentially means the houses linked to the
transformer get free electricity. This requires the whole neighborhood to
switch off their power during the bypass process so some measure of cooperation
is required.
The third process involves a
similar bypass process to happen but this time at a house hold level either by
tampering with the installed prepaid meter or creating a bypass in the box
housing the circuit breakers, this method though leaves you liable to a large
fine and the confiscation of your pre-paid meter by Eskom.
The fourth and final method is
a new one where a small group of men in the Lejweleputswa district have found a
way of creating counterfeit prepaid vouchers selling a thousand kW/h for three
hundred rands basically creating a totally parallel system to the state run
process if this trend prevails and I assume it will, Eskom will find itself in
a real bind where the increase in tariffs would not yield the desired result of
showing an entity in its way to solvency.
Lastly, I also found out that
the water metering system can also be bypassed by replacing the municipal meter
with a normal run of the mill pipe, now the city workers would not be able to
take a reading of your water usage.
The creation of alternatives
South Africa’s economy is
undoubtedly an oligarchy in any given sector you would be hard pressed to find
more than 4 major players at any given time thus creating industries made up of
monarchs of industry and their sentinels in whatever form they may come either
as politicians or some out of the way black council of over paid gate keepers.
This is why the normal South
African has opted for the creation of alternative means of wealth acquisition and
service delivery whether fair or foul. The grand assumption has always been
that the political class will be the first to fall at the hand of the poor but
by all indications the people do not seem to hold political parties in any
esteem, they seem to have realized that the political system in this country
will not deliver tangible solutions to their lives.
It is a great fear of mine that
we are heading toward a cliff of mammoth proportions on that would
significantly alter South Africa’s political landscape forever. Many in the
country seem oblivious to the ticking time bomb.
Briggar
