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Editorial
Johannesburg- Tuesday is a very important day in the South African calendar; it is the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, when 69 people were shot dead by police. They were protesting the hated dompas, one of the many ignominies inflicted by apartheid.
Our transition in 1994 changed all that. Never again would we be treated differently because of our creed or colour. Democracy gave us all equal rights; to live, love, assemble, believe, work wherever with whoever and whenever we chose.
To paraphrase the British poet John Edmonds, the people of Sharpeville gave their todays so we could have our tomorrows. This is why this country commemorates March 21 every year as Human Rights Day.
On Monday, the EFF will use that right to protest against the state of this country; everything from load shedding to a president who appears ineffectual and tarnished by a prima facie money laundering case.
This will not be a peaceful protest because the EFF does not do peaceful. The party’s appeal is founded on spectacle, sound bites and video clips. For Monday’s protest to work there has to be a mass turnout and if they cannot achieve that, then there has to be a distraction.
They have signposted this throughout their warm up campaign; businesses must close or else they will be looted. It is an unequivocal warning, not a threat.
Julius Malema will contort himself to deny it, but he knows full well what he is ordering. The government knows too, after the total failure of state security that allowed the July 2021 insurrection to metastasise. The scene is set for a conflagration – or it could be a damp squib. The problem is no one knows and that’s precisely what Malema wants.
The irony, of course, is that this proves exactly what he is protesting – the vacuum of leadership at the Union Buildings.