DAVID LEWIS: New year’s resolution — use your voice
Selecting SA and global problems that you can help solve is easier than losing weight and less boring than the treadmill
16 January 2025 - 05:00
byDavid Lewis
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’Tis the time of new year resolutions. Forget about revisiting the ones that you made last year. Trust me, they don’t work. So, get really virtuous and select an SA problem and a global problem that you can help solve. It’s easier than losing weight and less boring than the treadmill.
There’s no shortage of causes to devote oneself to in SA — hunger, a collapsing public healthcare system, education inequality, the deplorable state of local government, gender-based violence, crime and corruption ... Identify where your interest lies and your anger peaks and enter the fray.
These problems and many others may seem to be beyond the pay scale of citizens, but each is reducible to the lived experience and determined counteraction of the proverbial person-in-the-street.
Don’t be afraid to take on the largest, seemingly intractable problems. I want to put my energies into contributing to addressing organised crime and the state of local government. Are these problems susceptible to the intervention of citizens?
We’re heading for real trouble if we don’t do something about organised crime. A relatively new phenomenon in SA, it refers to those crimes perpetrated by syndicates of crooked politicians, public officials, law enforcement officials and businesspeople. Some syndicates operate globally and are accompanied by unspeakable levels of violence. Others are local with lower financial returns but no less difficult to tackle.
In many of its key elements the state capture project fits the definition of organised crime and, though not characterised by extreme violence, its impact on the delivery of basic services and on SA’s economic performance puts it up there in the organised crime category. But wait until we’ve been captured by international drug cartels. Our experience of state capture will seem like a walk in the park. Ask anyone living on the Cape Flats.
We’re confronting major organised criminal syndicates in SA. The construction and taxi mafias fit the description, as do the gold extraction syndicates. Take the “zama-zama” phenomenon. The individuals working underground in abandoned mines are the least of the problem. Their problem is extreme poverty and they don’t earn the big bucks. From a law enforcement perspective prosecuting the miners will make no contribution to addressing the problem.
Rather go after those local political bosses in the Lesotho villages, the major suppliers of zama-zama labour, who are responsible for recruiting the miners, and who undoubtedly receive a share of their earnings; go after the underground “supervisors” who are preventing the starving miners from surfacing; go after the agents who buy the ore and those, formal and informal operators, who smelt it; go after those smuggling the gold out of the country; arrest those laundering the proceeds of their ill-gotten gains; and go for the mining companies that failed to seal the abandoned shafts when their formal mining life ended.
The residents of Stilfontein have tried to feed the starving miners, giving the lie to the alleged community hostility to the zama zamas. Demand of law enforcement that they focus their attention on the kingpins in the value chain. Join in the condemnation of the dim-witted minister who threatened to “smoke out” the miners, a cruel and futile approach if ever there is one.
Demand of the mining houses that they work with the unions and government to examine possibilities for humane reworking of the abandoned shafts. Demand an uncompromising law enforcement response to those who extort the construction companies and threaten their employees.
In many townships and suburbs there is some semblance of community organisation, often captured by one or other political party. Depoliticise local government by supporting the candidate for city and town councils who, you believe, will deliver services regardless of her political affiliation.
In the suburb where I live we have a local councillor who is admirably attentive to residents’ needs. He is apparently a DA member, though his communication with the public rarely, if ever, references his political affiliation. Rather, his communication is all about boring stuff such as burst water pipes, exploding substations and dog poo in the local park, all issues that affect one’s daily wellbeing. Come 2026 he has my vote.
The problems of 2024 haven’t disappeared with the old year. If anything, they will intensify.
As the aphorism goes, all politics is local. Provincial and local government are where the rubber hits the road. I’m encouraged by the growing refusal of Gauteng voters to support those who have overseen the looting and degrading of our largest city and our administrative capital — as graphically demonstrated in the last provincial election. If the ANC doesn’t do something about its inept, corrupt Gauteng leadership, come the next local and provincial elections it will be decimated. The problem is that by then the province and its cities may also be decimated.
It’s not only about big-ticket items such as water and electricity. Nor about parochial issues such as dog poo. The city’s medium-sized public art gallery is a shameful, looted wreck; the 15-story building that housed the city’s administration has been abandoned; a major road connecting the old business district blew up more than a year ago and has not been repaired.
This year Johannesburg hosts the Group of 20 (G20). Dada Morero, the singularly unimpressive mayor of Johannesburg, promised “to ensure that by the time [the delegates] come, our infrastructure is showing significant improvement”. I’ve no doubt that Sandton’s infrastructure will be in working order, and that a coat of paint will be applied to the route from the airport to Sandton. But Johannesburg’s infrastructure? Don’t hold your breath.
Then again the mayor has made no promises to the citizens of Johannesburg. Only to the G20 delegates. Indeed, at his inauguration Morero told a journalist: “We won’t be able to do everything in the next two years. We only have a limited time, but if we are able to put systems in place, [Morero’s successor can] implement [changes].” Maybe in two years he could stand for mayor of the G20.
At the other end of the spectrum, don’t forget to contribute to solving global problems. The year 2024 was dismal. It was the year in which those for whom words such as “Dresden”, “Stalingrad”, “Auschwitz”, “Holodomor”, “Hiroshima” and “napalm” mean little, must now have learnt that terrorism isn’t the sole preserve of suicide bombers and a few men bearing petrol bombs.
It’s not the shadowy figure in a balaclava who spreads terror on an unimaginable scale. Rather, it is those who command vast armies and laboratories of scientists and engineers, men named Kissinger, Netanyahu and Putin, who deploy jet fighters, missiles and exploding cellphones, who are the most effective terrorists.
The problems of 2024 haven’t disappeared with the old year. If anything, they will intensify. Israel has yet to deal comprehensively with Iran and Yemen; Russia has yet to defeat Ukraine and deploy those terrifying weapons in its armoury that may bring about the end of that war; Sudan’s generals will continue killing, displacing and starving millions of innocent people before they agree to divide the spoils.
Citizens and their governments far from the conflict zones can make a difference — witness the pro-Palestinian demonstrators on US campuses and SA’s action at the International Court of Justice. And let these issues influence your vote. Come 2029, I, for one, will not support a party that has condoned Israel’s genocidal campaign in Palestine.
Nelson Mandela famously reminded us that “our freedom will not be complete until the freedom of the Palestinians is also achieved”. Nor will our freedom be complete while we have no reliable water or electricity supply, no jobs, and searing inequality. But we have realised a partial democracy. Use your voice. It’s a powerful weapon.
• Lewis, a former trade unionist, academic, policymaker, regulator and company board member, was a co-founder and director of Corruption Watch.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
DAVID LEWIS: New year’s resolution — use your voice
Selecting SA and global problems that you can help solve is easier than losing weight and less boring than the treadmill
’Tis the time of new year resolutions. Forget about revisiting the ones that you made last year. Trust me, they don’t work. So, get really virtuous and select an SA problem and a global problem that you can help solve. It’s easier than losing weight and less boring than the treadmill.
There’s no shortage of causes to devote oneself to in SA — hunger, a collapsing public healthcare system, education inequality, the deplorable state of local government, gender-based violence, crime and corruption ... Identify where your interest lies and your anger peaks and enter the fray.
These problems and many others may seem to be beyond the pay scale of citizens, but each is reducible to the lived experience and determined counteraction of the proverbial person-in-the-street.
Don’t be afraid to take on the largest, seemingly intractable problems. I want to put my energies into contributing to addressing organised crime and the state of local government. Are these problems susceptible to the intervention of citizens?
We’re heading for real trouble if we don’t do something about organised crime. A relatively new phenomenon in SA, it refers to those crimes perpetrated by syndicates of crooked politicians, public officials, law enforcement officials and businesspeople. Some syndicates operate globally and are accompanied by unspeakable levels of violence. Others are local with lower financial returns but no less difficult to tackle.
In many of its key elements the state capture project fits the definition of organised crime and, though not characterised by extreme violence, its impact on the delivery of basic services and on SA’s economic performance puts it up there in the organised crime category. But wait until we’ve been captured by international drug cartels. Our experience of state capture will seem like a walk in the park. Ask anyone living on the Cape Flats.
JABULANI SIKHAKHANE: Latin America’s organised crime experience a warning for SA
We’re confronting major organised criminal syndicates in SA. The construction and taxi mafias fit the description, as do the gold extraction syndicates. Take the “zama-zama” phenomenon. The individuals working underground in abandoned mines are the least of the problem. Their problem is extreme poverty and they don’t earn the big bucks. From a law enforcement perspective prosecuting the miners will make no contribution to addressing the problem.
Rather go after those local political bosses in the Lesotho villages, the major suppliers of zama-zama labour, who are responsible for recruiting the miners, and who undoubtedly receive a share of their earnings; go after the underground “supervisors” who are preventing the starving miners from surfacing; go after the agents who buy the ore and those, formal and informal operators, who smelt it; go after those smuggling the gold out of the country; arrest those laundering the proceeds of their ill-gotten gains; and go for the mining companies that failed to seal the abandoned shafts when their formal mining life ended.
The residents of Stilfontein have tried to feed the starving miners, giving the lie to the alleged community hostility to the zama zamas. Demand of law enforcement that they focus their attention on the kingpins in the value chain. Join in the condemnation of the dim-witted minister who threatened to “smoke out” the miners, a cruel and futile approach if ever there is one.
HILARY JOFFE: Illegal mining exposes a socioeconomic, political and security crisis
Demand of the mining houses that they work with the unions and government to examine possibilities for humane reworking of the abandoned shafts. Demand an uncompromising law enforcement response to those who extort the construction companies and threaten their employees.
In many townships and suburbs there is some semblance of community organisation, often captured by one or other political party. Depoliticise local government by supporting the candidate for city and town councils who, you believe, will deliver services regardless of her political affiliation.
In the suburb where I live we have a local councillor who is admirably attentive to residents’ needs. He is apparently a DA member, though his communication with the public rarely, if ever, references his political affiliation. Rather, his communication is all about boring stuff such as burst water pipes, exploding substations and dog poo in the local park, all issues that affect one’s daily wellbeing. Come 2026 he has my vote.
As the aphorism goes, all politics is local. Provincial and local government are where the rubber hits the road. I’m encouraged by the growing refusal of Gauteng voters to support those who have overseen the looting and degrading of our largest city and our administrative capital — as graphically demonstrated in the last provincial election. If the ANC doesn’t do something about its inept, corrupt Gauteng leadership, come the next local and provincial elections it will be decimated. The problem is that by then the province and its cities may also be decimated.
It’s not only about big-ticket items such as water and electricity. Nor about parochial issues such as dog poo. The city’s medium-sized public art gallery is a shameful, looted wreck; the 15-story building that housed the city’s administration has been abandoned; a major road connecting the old business district blew up more than a year ago and has not been repaired.
This year Johannesburg hosts the Group of 20 (G20). Dada Morero, the singularly unimpressive mayor of Johannesburg, promised “to ensure that by the time [the delegates] come, our infrastructure is showing significant improvement”. I’ve no doubt that Sandton’s infrastructure will be in working order, and that a coat of paint will be applied to the route from the airport to Sandton. But Johannesburg’s infrastructure? Don’t hold your breath.
SHAWN HAGEDORN: Trump and SA hosting the G20
Then again the mayor has made no promises to the citizens of Johannesburg. Only to the G20 delegates. Indeed, at his inauguration Morero told a journalist: “We won’t be able to do everything in the next two years. We only have a limited time, but if we are able to put systems in place, [Morero’s successor can] implement [changes].” Maybe in two years he could stand for mayor of the G20.
At the other end of the spectrum, don’t forget to contribute to solving global problems. The year 2024 was dismal. It was the year in which those for whom words such as “Dresden”, “Stalingrad”, “Auschwitz”, “Holodomor”, “Hiroshima” and “napalm” mean little, must now have learnt that terrorism isn’t the sole preserve of suicide bombers and a few men bearing petrol bombs.
It’s not the shadowy figure in a balaclava who spreads terror on an unimaginable scale. Rather, it is those who command vast armies and laboratories of scientists and engineers, men named Kissinger, Netanyahu and Putin, who deploy jet fighters, missiles and exploding cellphones, who are the most effective terrorists.
The problems of 2024 haven’t disappeared with the old year. If anything, they will intensify. Israel has yet to deal comprehensively with Iran and Yemen; Russia has yet to defeat Ukraine and deploy those terrifying weapons in its armoury that may bring about the end of that war; Sudan’s generals will continue killing, displacing and starving millions of innocent people before they agree to divide the spoils.
Citizens and their governments far from the conflict zones can make a difference — witness the pro-Palestinian demonstrators on US campuses and SA’s action at the International Court of Justice. And let these issues influence your vote. Come 2029, I, for one, will not support a party that has condoned Israel’s genocidal campaign in Palestine.
Nelson Mandela famously reminded us that “our freedom will not be complete until the freedom of the Palestinians is also achieved”. Nor will our freedom be complete while we have no reliable water or electricity supply, no jobs, and searing inequality. But we have realised a partial democracy. Use your voice. It’s a powerful weapon.
• Lewis, a former trade unionist, academic, policymaker, regulator and company board member, was a co-founder and director of Corruption Watch.
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