What did EFF achieve?

LAST week, the exaggerated success of the national shutdown, spearheaded by the EFF, was a topic of conversation.

South Africa was aflood with coroners and post-morterm specialists as the political rigour mortis set in.

A brilliantly penned online blog by the Daily Maverick’s Tim Cohen, in its After The Bell column, caught my eye. I thought it was an excellent perspective and a masterpiece of narrative, written and posted on the same evening of the nationwide marches.

Cohen questioned the validity and success of the shutdown. What did they achieve? Where was the prominence of civil leaders and clergymen?

He compared it to the most memorable protest that changed the course of history – the March in Washington in 1863 in which Martin Luther King jr delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech before more than 200 000 supporters.

The march led to the repealing of the kafkaesque laws and its desired gravitas delivered reform.

What did Julius Malema’s party achieve besides garnering support before next year’s general elections and maybe one or two more MPs to bolster its in-Parliament fighting squad?

Globally, it was no match for the 2020 Indian Farmers protests in which farmers fought for their dwindling livelihoods because of proposed government legislation that would manipulate free trade, markets and profits. The betel-nut stompers and robust tractor drivers won in the end as they brought major cities to a standstill.

Another event in 2020 that was a turning point in American history was the Black Lives Matter movement, led by the clergy, with religious panache and respect, following the killing of George Floyd by a white policeman. It highlighted systemic racism and police brutality.

But here at home, Malema's Red Brigade lacked purpose, cause and substance where inertia brewed under the African sun as thousands defiantly marched rightfully against the Phala Phala menagerie, rolling power cuts, government corruption and failed service delivery.

When Monday dawned, the day of the national shutdown, the heebie-jeebies hit many who stayed at home, not in solidarity with the EFF’s cause but for their own safety and to protect their loved ones and property. Business owners also closed shop, for fear of being looted or burnt.

The innocent and neutral don’t want to be like low-hanging fruit, attacked at will. They don’t want to be the filling in the sandwich or the patty in the hamburger bun.

But the stoic chief-in-command forged ahead, unhindered by any distant hazards.

Once a timorous cipher now turned giant, he reminds me of Popeye and the fact that when he eats spinach, he gets super strong. Except, in his case, the spinach is the unwashed masses and they unashamedly feed his monstrous appetite.

He is the man Jack met at the top of the beanstalk. He sees burning tyres as acts of liberation. His acts of lese-majeste have gained him global notoriety, while observers watch the growing spectre of unease with wary eyes.

There is a Turkish proverb that says when a clown moves into a palace, he does not become a king. Instead, the palace becomes a circus.

And never forget the old adage: the whale that spouts gets the harpoon.