Time to Reclaim our Agency
Agency, that human trait that does not leave your belief and ability to influence your fate in the universe to the hands of God alone, but the belief and ability that you have in determining at least part of the direction your life, seems to be missing in the lives of many South Africans.
A woman salutes before a portrait of Nelson Mandela. The broken promise of 1994 is now haunting South Africa. (Photo: Yannis Behrakis, Reuters/CNS).
Recent events seem to point to a collective abandoning of our agency where the other has been vilified and pinned as the source of all our woes.
Politicians have caught on to this trend very well, and like a shoal of piranhas to a bleeding toe, they have circled and are tearing at wounds their failures have not healed.
King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu started something when he said: “We are requesting those who come from outside to please go back to their countries.” And then he blamed the media: “You journalists are causing chaos… The way you report in your newspapers?…?you misinterpret and distort my words to sell your newspapers.”
But how is the media to blame when one of the victims of the xenophobic attacks, Daniel Dunia, who runs a computer repair and sales shop in Isipingo, claims that locals warned: “We’re going to hit you on Monday. The king says you kwekweres [foreigners] must go?”
Home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba issued a statement which could only have been directed at the king and those of his ilk: “Leaders in our country have a responsibility to use their words to build and not to destroy. We need to take a very firm view about uttering statements which could result in violence, physical attacks on others and a loss of life or damage to property.”
It is not the media’s fault but much rather the utterances of antiquated traditional leaders that hold great sway over their subjects—so much so that they have become a power base for the rulers, and so much so that ministers veil their criticisms in generalities rather than specifics and are rumoured to have apologised for raising these criticisms.
What this demonstrates is that a system of patronage, where traditional leaders rule in a semi-autonomous manner within a constitutional democracy, hold the key to peoples’ votes. And to access these votes, the very constitutional and democratic principles which politicians are supposed to protect and uphold are sacrificed.
If government, the custodians of power, has sacrificed at least a portion of its authority and responsibility to uphold constitutionality, and thereby sacrificed some of its agency, what about us as ordinary citizens?
A collective lack of agency has left the citizenry angry and lashing out. As factually incorrect as many of the myths pertaining to the economic impact of foreign nationals are, at the heart of the anger of the poor is their own poor economic advancements.
The recent resurgence of the race debate, the ever-looming land issue—as well as land invasions by communities and political parties—and even the anger at historical symbols, point to a collective anger at not getting all that was promised in the 1994 deal.
We handed over agency to our political leaders and ordinarily, in a constitutional democracy based on human rights, handing over some of your agency should be perfectly acceptable.
Rights to basic education, quality healthcare, safety and security are governmental responsibilities and in light of government’s momentous task of facilitating equity, our leaders have a greater responsibility than most in comparison, globally.
Whether it be Eskom and the load-shedding mess, or the fact that poverty persists unabated and education fails to be an equaliser and cure for our socio-economic disparities; government has underperformed at their end of the bargain, at the very least. Therefore much of the anger is righteously justified.
However, if we truly had agency, we would hold our leaders to account and demand delivery at their end of the bargain. Our mass action would have yielded results, our votes would come at the premium of minimum expectations, prompting our leaders to earn these and rather than communicating our anger through violence, looting and damage to property.
In the economic journey out of poverty, we should be partners rather than passive passengers.
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