Business of manufacturing protest

THIS past weekend photos of numerous anti-Absa protests by supposed members of Andile Mngxitama’s Black First Land First movement were shared and uploaded online, accompanied by taglines such as “BLF nationwide picket a success”.

Now, while numbers are not necessarily the marker of political weight, the BLF protests appeared more manufactured than massbased.

They had that “rent-a-crowd” appearance with uniformly printed glossy signs that look like they were handed out along with T-shirts to anyone willing to come along for the ride.

While Mngxitama and his ilk have been accused lately of purveying fake news as part of the Gupta public relations arsenal, the ironic thing about this weekend’s display of “protest” was the fact that it was very reminiscent of the kind of fake mass mobilising that I have witnessed in the world of human rights activism in South Africa.

Of course, saying that human rights organisations in South Africa manufacture protest is considered an insult to good work being done.

In the world of NGOs, in which I was once active, it is taboo to ask questions about how large groups of usually unemployed township dwellers, many of whom hardly interact with the relevant organisation much, end up at a protest under the banner of that organisation.

In my observation, there are two ways in which NGOs organise groups of people to arrive for a protest.

First, the NGO may organise a protest over an issue that genuinely affects everyone in that community and thus attract many people to the march who wish to have their grievances heard.

This kind of mobilising makes sense as NGOs strive to be politically integrated with the communities in which they work.

A second, less genuine approach, is when NGOs strategically use local individuals who have some status or recognition in a community to go and recruit protestors specifically for a once-off protest.

I have observed local NGO leaders recruiting people from where they reside with incentives.

Incentives here involve simply saying, “There’s a protest, come along, we are giving away free Tshirts and a snack.”

In my observation, people who go along do so for the fun and the ride, as well as because they genuinely respect the local NGO leader.

Because protest is in our very South African blood, the recruited individuals know exactly what is expected of them. They will sing, toyitoyi, raise placards and respond to any cries of “Amandla!”

But if you are an honest human rights activist, you may observe in such a crowd that people are completely disconnected from the political message that has ostensibly brought them together.

It is more of a social gathering and I have often heard people talking about the fact that they came along for the jol.

Why do NGOs do this and why is there a silence around these kinds of shady practices?

Quite simply it is done because funders love it.

Funders have a one-dimensional view of how to measure the impact of their funding – they want to see crowds of people and reports of the spectacle of the protest through media.

So even human rights activists will manufacture a protest and ensure that images of it are widely circulated and reported.

Dare ask “is this real” and you will face ostracisation.

You may be accused of being “patronising” towards black people.

How dare you say they are being “orchestrated”! Do black people not have their own agency?

If I asked any of my former NGO colleagues if they thought Mngxitama’s latest #AbsaMustPay protest crowd were in anyway real I’ll bet most would say no.

In the same vein, NGOs must accept that in their own work, the mere presence of a black protesting crowd does not a meaningful political presence make.