EBRAHIM HARVEY | Is SA headed for a protracted, race-based civil war?

The allegations of racism at Cape Town’s Brackenfell High School recently and the violence which flared during a protest march against it by the EFF is only a more dramatic manifestation of SA’s most notorious historical malady. The important difference, however, between the events in Brackenfell and the fierce stand-off in Senekal a few weeks ago between supporters of the party and disgruntled white farmers after one was killed is that the former was in an urban area and the latter in a rural area.

This is an important difference because it is in urban areas, due to their much bigger population concentrations and greater resources, where heated events, such as happened in Brackenfell, can quickly escalate into large-scale violence. And indeed, we saw how quickly a group of white residents opposed to the protest outside the school pitched up and were aggressively armed for a confrontation they clearly wanted with the EFF.

If there was not a huge police presence preventing physical confrontation between the EFF and white protesters in both areas there would have been much bloodshed on both sides. But the vicious physical violence inflicted by some white people against EFF supporters who marched on the school, and whose constitutional right to do so is clear, was possibly the most provocative scene of probably white right-wing violence we have seen in many years.

However, what happened there and why is only the latest manifestation of the palpable unhappiness of black South Africans, be they students or workers, with a range of problems, many of which can be traced back to the serious limitations of the 1990s political settlement, including the Fees Must Fall movement of earlier years. I argue that virtually all struggles around schooling and, more broadly, education, housing, basic services and so much more, are related directly or indirectly to the nature of that settlement. 

An analysis of news reports of what happened in Brackenfell makes it clear we are dealing with a school where race has been a dominant theme for many years, in which black pupils have felt alienated, aggrieved and disempowered by a white Afrikaner culture which prevailed there, even after the political changes of the 1990s. Brackenfell tells us unmistakably that we are predictably reliving our past in many ways as a direct result of the 1990s’ political settlement failing to deal with many issues which took shape and congealed under apartheid rule. 

Hence the premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, could say that “some of our learners in our schools do not feel welcome or heard. This can’t continue because building our rainbow nation starts with all of us, including our children.’’ But it surprises a bit that he could refer to the “rainbow nation” when its myth has been shattered across the country in countless ways since 1994. On the other hand, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation said “the school is a symbol of unresolved issues from SA’s past’’, which reflected “systemic problems’’.  

Chris Nissen, a commissioner at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), lamented that what happened was not unique to Brackenfell and that reports of racism were still evident at many schools. Importantly, black pupils related stories of how they were discriminated against and racially abused at the school by a dominant white Afrikaner culture and how “the Afrikaans learners were always favoured above English learners and the majority of English learners were always people of colour’’.  

Though news reports carried conflicting messages of what really caused the events at the school, a few things are clear. One, though the school defensively and conveniently claimed it was not involved in organising the private function at which only white pupils were present and tried to distance itself from the event, this was not convincing or wise, especially given this background of racial conflict at the school. Two, not many realise that only white pupils being present at the function only serves to reinforce perceptions of racism, especially given that history.

But there is another important to side consider in the conflict there and that is that it was reported that some white pupils also did not attend the function. If that is the case, then it was not only racial issues which determined who attended the function, but probably class too, meaning given the unprecedented economic crisis today, the R500 admission fee was unaffordable for some white pupils. On the other hand, it was also a foregone probability that many or most of the black pupils, even if invited, would not have been able to attend.

However, there is an interesting and revealing fact about postapartheid SA: despite the economic power and many-sided privileges of whites having remained intact since 1994 and the changes which have occurred until today having been largely political, institutional and symbolic, many among them, especially white Afrikaners, have grudgingly come to terms with these processes and I’m certain they often wish they could turn back the clock to apartheid times.

What is beyond doubt, however, with worrying implications, is that the more conservative and white right-wing elements in the country are becoming more restless, intolerant and aggressive about the issues they take up. We have seen this in Senekal and Brackenfell, and there is little doubt that they are increasingly projecting such a public image in response to the strident militancy of the EFF and the violence that has sometimes come from its members during protests. I argue that it is mainly in urban areas where the greatest threat of organised and spontaneous violence is posed, especially by the likes of the EFF and AfriForum, and other white right-wing groups. It has been growing over the past decade in this country, as it has in countries such as the US and Australia, as has been the conscious collaboration between them. 

But back to Brackenfell. There is a worrying increase in the propensity for violence by the likes of the EFF and white right-wing groups, probably linked to the unprecedented economic crisis we have which poses threats to them in different ways. It is also not often that in largely white suburban areas we see the use of stun grenades, water cannons, teargas and barbed wire by the police to quell militant protests reminiscent of the clashes during apartheid in black townships.

However, something big and somewhat scary is happening in SA — a complex combination of conservative elements of the past with those at present yearning for a different and brighter future, not necessarily neatly between white and black, but more likely straddling race and class within and between them, but still largely along racial lines. Senekal and Brackenfell show us that a protracted low-intensity civil war with racial connotations is not only a growing possibility, but might already be under way.

If we are not careful, especially in violent confrontations between the likes of the EFF and white right-wing groups, this phenomenon will become much more manifest. Given our history and the serious limitations of the 1990s political settlement there is not a lack of combustible material for such a protracted, low-intensity, racial civil war. Such writing has, worryingly, been on the wall for a while.      

Ebrahim Harvey is a political writer, analyst and author, whose new book, Race, Class & Gender under ANC Rule, is to be published by Jacana in January.