It is just like the Apartheid days, but is it?

I was not going to take the issue of protests up again. I have in a previous post made a meal about the right to protest and the concomitant duty not to breach the bounds of human decency (see "Protesting ourselves into oblivion"). However, the subject of protests raised its ugly head in two context over the last few days, both of which I find irresistible to get into. The first relates to the students (if one may call them that) of the Tshwane University of Technology and the second relates to the eviction, by court order of people from the N2 gateway housing project.

The scenes depicted in the newspapers and on television news reports are nothing but sad. People of all ages and state of health, left on the streets by what seems to be a heavy hand of the law and government. These scenes notwithstanding, I am unable to feel sorry for the people, their families, children and neighbours. These scenes, this sadness, all those "where must I go, what am I supposed to do" soundbites were unfortunately but truly brought upon the people by the very people. I do not know about you but most of us were raised with one fundamental lesson, "you do not take for yourself what does not belong to you or what is not for you to have". It is ignoring this simple teaching that leave that destitute mother and her child on the streets and without a roof over their heads.

That they were in all probability failed by the government is probably true. That however does not entitle them to occupy, take-over, move into houses that are not for them to occupy or move into. Even when they do not agree with the rules that created the queue that eventully left them out on the lurch and without a home for "15 years" they are not entitle to take what is theirs.

I do not speak on behalf of the government. I speak on behalf of those who play by the rules, those who have waited for a home and could not get it because others have muscled in and took it over. Where the government is at fault it should be taken on and made to fix things, alternatively, as it has happened before in the Western Cape, be voted out of office. The alternative spells disaster for all of us.

As for the hooligans who masquerade as students who in their frustrations (whatever the cause) see it fit to destroy their own campus, I have this american phrase "shame on you" ok, let's try a South African word "sies" or another South African phrase "ga le tlhabiwe ke ditlhong". These are expressions of disappointment. Once again, the complaints and grievances are in general legitimate and deserving of urgent action but legitimate as they may be, do not entitle the students (so called) to go on a rampage.

The right of all South Africans to assemble and to protest is protected under our constitution. The duty to prostest civilly and with dignity is rooted in our being or at least ought to be. Unless and until the universities and other institutions of higher learning show their unequivocal intolerance of this conduct by, the cycle will keep repeating itself.

Just because one has been wronged does not put one above the demands and requirements of common decency. It may not seem like it but times they have indeed changed. We have the institutions and the means to address our differences and grievances without the need for violent protests. The scenes of police shooting all manner of munitions at protesting civilans is a stark reminder of the apartheid days - but these are not those days when the citizens did not have the institutions that would or could protect their rights. It may all look like the apartheid days but it is not.

We forget that we have a media that is obsessed with negative stereotype of the country and its people, a media that seems to resent a celebration of self and yet we feed them the images of fear, intimidation and destruction, which we become well-known for.