For some time now, SA has been dubbed the protest capital of the world.
This as the “rebellion of the poor” respond on a daily basis to a raft of social, economic and political grievances fuelled by corruption or inequality that push them further below the poverty line.
While apartheid is to blame for our skewed inequality, protest politics are a natural way of holding the ruling party in check.
But it seems protesting in SA is taking on a sinister character.
In April last year, the 1,100 bed Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital was closed after a blaze in a personal protective equipment storage room in the basement parkade.
The closure of the public hospital caused huge disruption to the provision of an already strained healthcare service in Gauteng.
And in the aftermath of the fire, patients have lost their lives, doctors have given up and resigned and costs have run into hundreds of millions of rand.
An inventory shows that medical goods worth R40m were in the storeroom where the fire took place, as well as a large amount of PPE obtained to protect health workers from Covid-19.
A second fire broke out in July in the parking lot beneath the hospital, the same spot as the first.
A police forensic report has revealed arson was the cause of the fire in April last year and suspected to be the cause of the second blaze.
If these tools of our democracy — our schools, hospitals, courts and our parliament — are burning at the hands of criminals, our country is flatlining.
Then in December, our country’s legislative lifeblood was threatened when Zandile Mafe allegedly set fire to the National Assembly.
This deliberate, fiery strike seemingly by an ordinary citizen, exposed our vulnerability. Since then the National Assembly has had to juggle venues to execute and administer the rule of law in our country.
A briefing last week highlighted the damage — taxpayers have to fork out close to R3bn to repair the gutted building and it could take up to three years.
In another incident, pupils at Ndengetho High School outside Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, torched several classes last week because police confiscated about 400 cellphones during a routine spot search at their school on Thursday.
Police routinely conduct searches at schools throughout the country for drugs and weapons after incidents of violence, and in some instances confiscate cellphones which are not allowed at most government schools.
The provincial education department said the furious pupils registered their anger by burning classrooms.
School management and education officials met parents of the pupils — some of whom are writing their trials ahead of final year matric exams — and arrangements were made for exams to continue on Monday.
The brazen act of arson will have implications in terms of the cost to the education department’s already stretched budget as well as the possible arrest of the young pupils, disrupting learning and teaching and the impact on those pupils who are left without a classroom.
Equally prejudiced are the four people who sustained minor injuries and the lawyers who operate from the Legal Practice Council office in Pretoria, who have been left in the lurch after a fire broke out on Monday.
All evidence points to arson after a scuffle with security officers. Another government entity brought to its knees by criminal elements that will ultimately cost the taxpayer.
Respect for basic human rights and the rule of law is enshrined in our constitution.
But if these tools of our democracy — our schools, hospitals, courts and our parliament — are burning at the hands of criminals, our country is flatlining.
The resuscitation is a group effort — police need to make arrests, the judiciary needs to prosecute and our communities need to give up the transgressors.
We can’t afford to stand by and watch our country burn.
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