Whatshot

2026
All
September
2025
All
November
All
2024
All
June
All
April
All
2023
All
March
All
2022
All
2021
All
2020
All
March
All
February
All
2019
All
December
All
November
All
October
All
September
All
August
All
July
All
June
All
May
All
April
All
March
All
February
All
2018
All
December
All
November
All
October
All
September
All
August
All
July
All
June
All
May
All
April
All
March
All
February
All
2017
All
December
All
November
All
October
All
September
All
August
All
July
All
June
All
May
All
April
All
March
All
February
All
January
All
2016
All
December
All
November
All
October
All
September
All
August
All
July
All
June
All
May
All
April
All
March
All
February
All
January
All
2015
All
December
All
November
All
October
All
September
All
August
All
July
All
June
All
May
All
DHS
April
All
March
All
February
All
January
All
2014
All
December
All
November
All
October
All
September
All
August
All
July
All
June
All
KZN
May
All
April
All
March
All
February
All
January
All
2013
All
December
All
November
All
October
All
September
All
August
All
July
All
June
All
May
All
April
All
March
All
February
All
January
All
2012
All
December
All
November
All
October
All
September
All
August
All
July
All

What's the issue?

What's the issue?

Author: Tomas Yoko
Date: 2013-01-23
"We burning and a-lootin' tonight" The famous song by Bob Marley rings in my ears as I watch with awe the shenanigans of the poorly done by voters of Metsimaholo and Ngwathe municipalities. Sasolburg erupted in disgusting protests that turned ugly and unleashed a filthy splurge of brazen looting and burning that stretched the SAPS's abilities and left some store owners with massive losses and huge head aches. This is a job for the SANDF, call out the army and put paid to this immoral and illegal strike action. All over municipal boundary demarcations, you cannot justify this animalistic behaviour over this issue. Sorry.

Howard Zinn, a political science professor and social activist who campaigned against war is quoted as saying "Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it." I can only understand this comment in the light of cruel and exasperating treatment from a government or oppressive power. Changing municipal boundaries does not fit into this category. Or does it? Am I missing something here?

So I began to educate myself some more and found that Henry David Thoreau supported this ideal in his quote here, "If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law." Unfortunately in Sasolburg there has been no injustice, just the perception of a possible injustice. I still say bring in the army, if we still have one.

Bob wails on, "How many rivers do we have to cross, Before we can talk to the boss? Eh! All that we got, it seems we have lost; We must have really paid the cost." I shudder to think what our country would look like if everybody who felt an injustice took to looting and violence. Ouch.

And just as I began to see that maybe there was some reason, some logic to violent civil disobedience, I came across a quote by George F. Kennan "If you accept a democratic system, this means that you are prepared to put up with those of its workings, legislative or administrative, with which you do not agree as well as with those that meet with your concurrence. This willingness to accept, in principle, the workings of a system based on the will of the majority, even when you yourself are in the minority, is simply the essence of democracy. Without it there could be no system of representative self-government at all. When you attempt to alter the workings of the system by means of violence or civil disobedience, this, it seems to me, can have only one of two implications; either you do not believe in democracy at all and consider that society ought to be governed by enlightened minorities such as the one to which you, of course, belong; or you consider that the present system is so imperfect that it is not truly representative, that it no longer serves adequately as a vehicle for the will of the majority, and that this leaves, to the unsatisfied, no adequate means of self-expression other than the primitive one of calling attention to themselves and their emotions by mass demonstrations and mass defiance of established authority."

Now I'm really confused.