Lockdown anger can’t be ignored

The “Free the Beaches” protests in Cape Town over the weekend held up a mirror to our fractured South African society. Clearly outnumbered by the protesters – who waded, swam and surfed in the water in blatant defiance of the latest disaster regulations ban on the use of beaches – cops watched on in amusement. This was a marked difference to the way they chased and hounded people from public spaces in the first days of the level 5 lockdown and how enthusiastically Police Minister Bheki Cele and his men and women patrolled the beaches after 29 December, looking for Covid-19 traitors.

The police inaction was quickly pounced on by the EFF – never ones to let an opportunity to score political points pass them by – who claimed the cops did nothing because the protesters were white. They may well have believed that because initial media and social media accounts focused on white protesters only. The reality is that a good many of those expressing their indignation and frustration were not white at all.

Also, in typical current SA fashion, the ANC’s Western Cape arm jumped on the EFF bandwagon only later, attacking the DA government in the province for not acting because protesters were white.

However, it was also clear from the conspiracy theory placards in evidence on the beaches that the anti-vaxxers and Covid deniers were out to make their points.

Standing back from the emotion, what the beach protests do show is that this country is not immune to the wave of anti-lockdown protests currently sweeping the world as people vent their anger at unemployment and restrictions on civil liberties caused by government reactions to Covid-19.

Our government would do well not to ignore that sentiment, nor the protesters’ accurate pleas about economic destruction. We cannot continue this lockdown much longer.