SA’s culture of violence manifests as men’s assertion of their power through force,, the acceptance of assault as a resolution to everyday disputes and the worship of violence in politics and social life.
Guns are too readily available. There has been a total breakdown of the rule of law. Policing has collapsed. These ills, combined with the government’s lack of seriousness to tackle them, have fostered an epidemic of violence threatening to destabilise the country, undermine economic development and drive out capital and talent.
Last weekend gunmen jumped out of a minibus taxi with AK47 assault rifles and attacked Mdlalose’s Tavern in Orlando East, Soweto, massacring 16 people and injuring many others before fleeing. On the other side of town, two people were gunned down at Mputlane’s Inn in Katlehong by drive-by shooters. On the same weekend four people were killed and eight wounded when gunmen opened fire on a tavern in Sweetwaters, Pietermaritzburg. In total, the shootings in Soweto, Katlehong and Pietermaritzburg claimed 22 lives.
Individual violent behaviour is strongly influenced by societal acceptance of force to resolve conflicts. Violent solutions to conflict have been part of SA’s white colonial and apartheid culture and black anti-colonial struggle, counter-apartheid culture and traditional systems.
Colonialism, slavery and apartheid were the original violence. The apartheid state, institutions and laws were violent. White SA was a militarised society. Many of SA’s liberation movements used counter-violence to respond to apartheid’s brutality.
In the past political ideological disputes were violently resolved, whether between the ANC and competing ideological political formations, or between competing ideological trade unions. During apartheid, violence in workplaces was systemic. SA’s original corporates, mining firms and farms used brute force to discipline black workforces.
Disputes in many black precolonial traditional societies were resolved with force. Black patriarchal traditional cultures were often also violent, which means that black and white social cultures were vicious.
In both black and white cultures weapons have become part of the toxic male identity, not only to dominate others but to force “respect” and overcome insecurity.
Many black and white South Africans use violence to discipline their children. Until recently corporal punishment was central to discipline in SA schools.
There has been a persistence of political ideologies that hero-worship violence. The use of violent language, slogans and anthems in the public discourse is politically fashionable and seen as “radical”.
Trade unions use violence when competing for members or when they try to persuade workers to strike or not.
Guns are also celebrated in politics. It is not surprising that former president Jacob Zuma’s singing of Umkhonto we Sizwe song Umshini Wami (“Bring my machine gun”) is popular among his supporters.
The violence of the “Fees Must Fall” movement in democratic SA is celebrated as heroic. Similarly, violence by trade union members on strike is treated as above board because they supposedly fight for “justice”. Protests against corruption, incompetence and mismanagement by government are often violent.
Trade unions use violence when competing for members or when they try to persuade workers to strike or not, as was seen in the 2019 attacks in Carletonville over territory between rival mining unions Amcu and NUM.
In townships, market competition is often also resolved through deadly force. Rival taxi associations often shoot each other and passengers over domination of routes, while metered-taxi drivers have attacked Uber drivers in Gauteng over market control.
Then there are foreign African-owned spaza shops, which are often looted by residents when they take issue with the shops doing better than those owned by locals. Some allege the recent spate of shootings at township taverns is competitors trying to push successful ones out of the market.
The cost of violence to the fabric of society is terrifying. It cuts economic growth, deters investment and drains the fiscus. It destroys human capital crucial for leadership, growth and stability. The human cost in loss of life, injury and pain is beyond calculation. Those living in violence-ridden communities “live in a constant state of trauma”.
Continuing violence undermines democracy itself, as the victims of crime, whose rights have been violated, lose confidence in democracy as a set of rules that will protect them.
Ongoing brutality increases the appeals to populist arguments that criminals are overprotected by human rights codes, and spawns demagogic leaders who call for “law and order” to be restored by suspending human rights.
SA needs the collective political will to make violence politically, socially and culturally intolerable. Such a debate must happen in all institutions — homes, communities, religious organisations, civil society organisations, political parties and workplaces.
Given that many SA families are broken, dysfunctional and violent, most citizens are unlikely to learn non-violence at home.
This means schools, sport associations, workplaces and religious, political and cultural organisations have an enormous role to play to inculcate new inclusive forms of masculinity. Such masculinity must reject asserting male identity with weapons.
Boys need to be taught from young about gender equality, eschewing violence and having empathy. Non-violence, as the only solution to resolving disputes, must be taught as compulsory in preschools, schools, higher education institutions and corporate induction programmes.
SA will have to start nationwide programmes which reverse the mass desensitisation against violence in societies. The police will have to become more effective. There must be restrictions on gun possession.
The ANC government must be seen to punish everyone equally who indulges in violence — particularly the politically connected and the “untouchables” — and gang leaders, taxi bosses, traditional chiefs and kings.
William Gumede is Associate Professor, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg)
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