Cape Town’s reaction to a man’s humiliation represents hypocrisy of state hegemony
I AM intrigued by the relationship between dogs, cattle and their masters. The behaviour is, at times, no different from that found in the state.
The relationship between citizens, security forces and the executive have a lot in common with that of dogs, cattle and their owner.
The tragic events of Bulelani Qolani, the Khayelitsha resident humiliated by City of Cape Town security officers who dragged him naked out of his shack, reminded me of my herdboy experiences five decades ago.
Let us explore this relationship. The government is a hegemony that is contested. A hegemony is described as leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group, over others.
The contestation manifests in the instruments it uses to assert its hegemony – enforcement, facilitation, provisions as well as impugning neglect and pain.
In the dark days of apartheid, state hegemony would act with disregard for human rights. On Thursday, a democratic South Africa saw the same type of apartheid-era scenes, with Qolani’s violation.
George Floyd suffered too at the hands of security forces, albeit white. We are reminded that at the base of hegemony are the intersection of the black man phenomena, race and class.
Qolani put up a gallant fight against the security officers, finally going back into his modest home, but even then the enraged officers tore his shack down.
The black state set black officials on black Qolani. This twist of events of black force squared on a black citizen reinforces the message that black lives matter, even more so because they are faced with a state hegemony dressed in massive power.
The state tried to justify its actions against the community of Empolweni, Khayelitsha. The law allows the state to clamp down on land invasion and the community is occupying the land illegally.
The question of the right to land and expropriation of land without compensation was the subject of deliberations and a possible amendment to the Constitution to allow for this. The discussions were skewed towards agricultural land, but black South Africans are hungry for urban land where they can put up houses, access jobs, and have children attend schools.
According to Statistics SA, Qolani’s naked body brought a face to the land expropriation debate and the plight of 14.5 percent of South Africa’s total dwelling stock. There are 2.2 million shack dwellings.
But in the global discourse of Black Lives Matter, Qolani’s humiliation, and an apology by the City of Cape Town and the suspension of the four officials represents hypocrisy of state hegemony – the typical master, cattle, dog relationship I observed as a herdboy.
Qolani was fending for his family and, hopefully, pays taxes to the city manager. But like dogs, the security officers of the sleeping city manager barked at him and took him out of his house naked, so that he’d never see it as a home but as a house of horrors and nightmares.
The master, angered by lack of taxes and embarrassed by public opinion, suspends his dogs. Everyone is a loser. The miserly approach to governance is not a problem of Cape Town only, it is at the heart of the state today.