Page 16 - Demo

The question
to ask ourselves is whether we want people to see that they are wrong and change their behaviour. Or do we just want them to feel guilty and terrible and never to say anything again?
and poor widening since 1994. Our contemporary and historic economic situation, inequality of access, segregation, poor governance and corruption mean that many people in the country still struggle to access basic services such as electricity and water, and many go hungry every day.
Unequal access to basic services is one of the main reasons behind protests
in South Africa, according
to Busisiwe Zasekhaya, project coordinator at the Right2Protest coalition. In 2018 alone, there were 237 protests just about municipal services. Policing, corruption and gender-based violence are common reasons
for protests too. During
the Covid-19 lockdown, protests related to hunger and food security occurred in many communities, despite the legal restrictions on movement. In 2020, a total of 511 protests were recorded by the Institute
for Security Studies (ISS) between 27 March 2020 and 31 July 2020, and, they say, the frequency of protests
is increasing each year.
So, the evidence shows that protest is a common mechanism used in South Africa to try and change a situation or to hold someone to account for a failure to do their job or deliver on their promises. ‘In most cases, protest is a last resort that
is used when groups have followed all appropriate channels and have not had a change in their circumstances or have not been heard by the relevant officials,’ says Zasekhaya.
The Right2Protest coalition was formed to protect
South Africans’ legal right to protest, which is entrenched in Section 17 of the Constitution. Public protest is regulated by the Regulations
on Gatherings Act (Act 205 of 1993) and there are clear guidelines for what constitutes a legal protest. These same regulations do not apply online.
Zasekhaya explains that despite legal protections, there are many stumbling blocks that make it difficult
if not impossible to hold legal, long-lasting protests like those seen in Hong Kong, Bangkok and, more recently, Myanmar. One of the main inhibiting factors
is the expense involved. ‘Public protests require resources like food, water and transport – and public transport is not always reliable,’ Zasekhaya explains.
However, South Africa
has seen its share of long- lasting public protests like #FeesMustFall, Marikana and current student protests against historic debt, all
of which indicated that protestors are often at risk
of violence and death for speaking truth to power, among other harms. ‘Many tactics are used by the
state or affected parties,
like mines or companies,
to intimidate people who want to protest. Pre-emptive arrests, legal interdicts and surveillance of activists are all happening in South Africa. How your protest is treated and policed depends on who you are and where you are. This also determines whether or not you are
likely to get shot at,’ says Zasekhaya. ‘In some cases there is also the challenge that those who must apply the law around applications for protest do not know
what the law is,’ she adds. So, the objective truth
is that protest in South
Africa is a constitutional right, but it is not a right
that all South Africans
have equal access to, and
it comes with real risks.
FROM THE STREETS
TO OUR SCREENS: THE LINKS BETWEEN OFFLINE AND ONLINE PROTEST Yet, as a recent ISS article suggests, although South Africans may have given up on democratic processes like elections (as evidenced by the low turnout in 2019), ‘they haven’t given up on voicing their frustration’.
Perhaps this is why online protests have become so popular around the world. They do away with the expense of transport, the duty of arranging marshals and the danger of violence. They allow people to voice their frustration without having to take to the streets. They also have the potential to increase the reach of a protest, or to amplify its message. An online protest can mobilise supporters from around the world
and increase awareness
of a cause. If there should then be an offline protest
at a later stage, more people will participate and support it – in real life or online. We saw this with
the worldwide support for #BlackLivesMatter protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020.
This doesn’t mean
that participating in
online protests is equally accessible to all or without risk, Zasekhaya points
out: ‘Online protests aren’t regulated in the same way as in-person protests, and data is expensive.’ Although smartphone penetration in South Africa is over 90%, our data is among the
most expensive in Africa. Although many people
have a phone that can access the internet, they therefore may not actually be able to afford to use it.
Still, when social media has been used for online protests, they’ve
14 | ISSUE 1 2021