Kumbaya and kombucha: a protest about white protest

Contrasts between different anti-Zuma marches show the persisting divisions in South Africa, says Bianca Capazorio

ON the morning of the very first of the #ZumaMustFall marches, in December 2015, my Facebook feed was filled with selfies of people going off to protest.

Among them was a fellow who posted a picture of his protest provisions, a bottle of kombucha. It goes without saying that he was white.

For those who don’t know what kombucha is, it’s a fermented health drink that, although flavoured with things like lemon or rooibos, tastes overwhelmingly of sweaty gym sock left in a dark corner for too long. It retails at around R50 for 500ml.

The irony of people protesting at the impact on the economy of the firing of then finance minister Nhlanhla Nene while drinking R50 bottles of swill did not go unnoticed.

That march was organised in a flurry of Facebook posts, with one of the earlier plans being that everyone pack a nice picnic and “peacefully and creatively” protest against corruption in South Africa.

One couldn’t help but think of that guy and those angry picnickers when examining contrasting marches after Pravin Gordhan was fired last month.

The emphasis in both anti-Zuma marches was on “peaceful”, but they differed. Perhaps this is because for many white people, “radical” is a swearword unless followed by “bru”.

And both protests following the firing of finance ministers, particularly in Cape Town, were in stark contrast to the scenes of the #FeesMustFall protests.

While Zuma Fallists packed picnics, Fees Fallists had to beg for donations of fruit and water to carry on with what they were doing.

#FeesMustFall protests were characterised by stun grenades and police in riot gear at the ready. During the marches on April 7 the streets outside parliament were clogged with thousands of people with hardly a Casspir in sight. Why? And when the marchers showed up at the Union Buildings this week, they were met by barbed wire and a heavy police presence.

The difference? The majority of those marchers were black.

We have to ask ourselves why, when the essence of the April 7 and April 12 marches was the same — deep unhappiness with the president — were the demographics so different in terms of race and class?

Are the marchers racist, as President Jacob Zuma contends?

While I’m sure a fair number in any crowd probably harbour some sort of racist ideas, I don’t believe the marches themselves were racist.

It’s not racist to be unhappy with the status quo, but if you’re the president of a divided party, in a historically divided country, marches that on the face of it appear to be divided by race and class fit perfectly into the narrative that people are unhappy purely because you intend getting tough on land and radical socioeconomic transformation.

I have watched hundreds of marches from my parliamentary office — marches for child support, workers’ rights, “poo protests” and marches against crime. Overwhelmingly, the marchers are black.

The truth is, white people generally don’t join in unless it’s against animal abuse or nuclear energy, or it’s a dagga march.

Why is it that white people would rather protest against the clubbing of seals in Namibia than the fact that human beings just a few kilometres down the road relieve themselves in buckets or risk being raped on their way to the toilet at night?

It’s not about whether white people should protest, or whether their grievances are legitimate. The question is, why now and why specifically this cause?

On the day Gordhan was axed, a whiter-than-usual protest crowd sang Kumbaya outside parliament like it was campfire night at the local Scout hall.

During last week’s protest, they sang Heal the World.

The absence of struggle songs probably means that many of the people singing have never taken part in a protest where songs like Senzeni na are common.

Many of them don’t realise that when they wake up tomorrow, things will not have magically changed because they waved the South African flag.

Mass action needs to be continuous — it is a process requiring personal sacrifice, not a single event.

Protest is a right enshrined in the constitution. In the history of this country it has effected major change.

At issue is that white people protest so very selectively, when their interests are threatened, while at the same time demanding unity and solidarity from black people whose own issues they have largely ignored.

A post on the Facebook group of an affluent suburb actually called on those taking part in the April 7 protests to park their vehicles, meet outside a fancy breakfast spot and bring their domestic workers and live-in security.

It read like satire — the cushy convenience of driving to a protest, perhaps grabbing a hazelnut latte, and bringing the help along as if this would somehow create unity.

How many of those dragging the domestic worker to protest against the impact of Gordhan’s axing on their investments would allow themselves to be dragged along to protest alongside that same domestic worker when she is too scared to walk to the toilet at night?

Isn’t that what real unity would look like?

Capazorio is a senior reporter in parliament

Mass action needs to be ongoing. It is a process requiring personal sacrifices, not a single event