EDITORIAL: Wrecking ball EFF hits brick wall of fed-up broad front

SA is no stranger to political actions that seek to bring the economy to a halt. It was trade unions that formed the spearhead of the anti-apartheid struggle, a strategy that correctly identified an unjust economic order as the foundation for a patently evil political system.  

The “national shutdown’’ taking place on Monday has ostensibly been planned in the same tradition, but with a few important differences, suggesting that while the strategy remains the same, the conditions in which it is unfolding is different. 

No-one disagrees with the EFF and its excitable leader, Julius Malema, that the economy is in dire straits. No-one disagrees that load-shedding is taking a terrible toll on productivity, but few believe that another day of mayhem and disorder will rectify that. As for the shutdown’s other principal aim, the removal of President Cyril Ramaphosa from office, the president himself has rightly pointed out that the only way to get rid of him is through the popular franchise, in the form of the elections in 2024.

The searing experience of the riots of July 2021 has made South Africans wary at the prospect of more unrest and civil chaos, after 400 people lost their lives in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal and thousands of jobs were destroyed, possibly permanently. That unrest, the Covid-19 pandemic and devastating weather combined with local-government mismanagement and corruption has alerted South Africans to the fact that the realities of economic decline compel us to look at the economy rather differently than in the past. We can no longer afford the luxury of economic disruption for political ends. 

Operating under a patina of legality, Malema says his protest is legitimate and is any event protected by the constitution. No-one disagrees, but everyone is aware that the EFF leader may be playing with fire. A volatile society crippled by lawlessness and an economic emergency is just dry wood waiting to go up in flames. That is the great danger on Monday.

Trade unions affiliated to Cosatu, the ANC-aligned federation, are not supporting the shutdown. The DA went to court in Johannesburg and Cape Town. While the courts stopped short of banning the shutdown, which they would hardly be expected to do, they have provided at least some legal protection against the violence and intimidation inherent in the EFF’s shutdown call. 

The message from Ramaphosa and the security cluster has been unambiguous, namely that while the EFF is free to protest it may not under any circumstances stop others from going to work and doing their usual business. With business organisations and large companies, a broad consensus was forged in the days leading up to the shutdown that brings together, perhaps for the first time, an array of organisations from different tendencies united to say, enough is enough. 

Malema and his fellow-travellers have been left exposed as spoilers and wreckers of the economy, as trade unions, business owners, taxi associations and the government put up a united front to protect the right to work and to conduct business without undue harassment. 

This coming together of organisations that would not naturally share much in common suggests a nascent consensus is emerging about the economy and what is needed to fix it. Business is making strides to free itself from dependency from Eskom and the workers themselves, except in the public sector perhaps, understand that jobs are scarce. 

Pointless politics

In the run-up to elections in 2024 the economy will presumably provide an easy target as political parties flex their muscles and position themselves before the vote. The ANC and its partners have now unequivocally committed themselves to making our economy work for the majority of South Africans. Perhaps this will further encourage that dialogue between business and state that business organisations have been complaining, and rightly so, is a one-way street. 

The shutdown has separated the builders from the demolishers, and in doing so has shown us the outline of a grouping of moderate South Africans who understand that pointless street politics will not provide growth and jobs and attract the investment we so desperately need. 

We are told that the shutdown is a flexing of muscles, a show of strength by the EFF to position itself to capitalise on the discontent that is such a feature of our politics. Conversely, it will also be a show of strength and test of the resolve of business, the state and citizens to withstand the tactics of intimidation and threat inherent in the EFF’s message. 

Inadvertently, the shutdown has united South Africans in a way that countless forums and discussions have failed to do in the past. Let’s hope that Monday’s event passes peacefully and that citizens are not made to suffer even more. 

Looking ahead, we need to build on the consensus that has emerged. It’s up to business, government and organised labour to elaborate on that consensus in the interest of growth, jobs and a rising level of prosperity for all. That way we can show Malema that his spoiler tactics do not enjoy the broad support he hoped for and that the only way to solve our problems is through hard work and diligent execution of our national tasks.  

The alternative is stagnation and impoverishment.