USE YOUR POWER AT THE BALLOT BOX

WHILE the police and SANDF attempt to restore order and businesses count the cost of days of violent looting in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, ANC leaders have either been found wanting or missed the point.

Consider KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala, who is walking a political tightrope, perhaps thinking about his political future while the vultures circle overhead.

Addressing the media, Zikalala conflated two separate and unrelated issues, saying it would be “good to see the former president released”, but adding the disclaimer that that had to be done peacefully.

But reporters on the ground and the live television coverage tell us that the last thing on the minds of looters was a 79-year-old man in Estcourt.

While ANC’s factional battles for access to state resources have been regular fixtures for the media, the poor have grown poorer every year as the income inequality gap increases.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the Gini coefficient (a measure of inequality) has increased rapidly from around 2000, ranking South Africa as the most unequal society in the world, and out of sync with fellow emerging economies.

Also consider the fact that wealth in South Africa remains concentrated in too few hands, while more than 50% of the youth remain unemployed.

It’s perhaps ironic that most of the looting and destruction of property has been in townships, at businesses and institutions that serve the poor, and not in wealthy neighbourhoods like Sandton or uMhlanga.

In a few days, a week, perhaps next month, those businesses have to make tough decisions on whether to reopen their doors.

Those who have been fanning the flames will disappear like the morning mist and move on to the next battlefront.

The deployment of the SANDF and police will not solve South Africa’s long-simmering issues that should have been addressed more than 20 years ago.

Until there is real action from Cyril Ramaphosa’s government to deal with income inequality and joblessness, South Africans should, instead of being violent, use the power of their votes and reject the ANC at the ballotbox.