A torched car in Jeppestown Image: Faizel Patel
Faizel Patel – 12/07/2021
Political analyst Dr Dale McKinley says the current wave of volatile protests and unrests sweeping across the country is more than just about the incarceration of former President Jacob Zuma.
What initially started as protests by some calling for the release of Zuma from prison in Kwazulu-Natal on Friday spilled over to parts of Gauteng over the weekend.
On Sunday night. the SAPS released a statement saying it was trying to get under control parts of the country that had seen anarchy over the weekend.
During his family meeting on Sunday, Ramaphosa also addressed the current violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, calling it the ethnic mobilisation of people, which he said must be condemned.
Speaking to Radio Islam, McKinley says the riots have nothing to do with Zuma.
“These cannot be described as ‘free Zuma’ protests. We are country that where you can protest, you can express your opinion to so peacefully with the law and there’s that faith. If people wanted to protest about ex-president Zuma’s incarceration, they have every right to so. They can make the application and do what everybody else does. This is not protests, this is simple comfort pro-analogy.”
McKinely says the ethnic mobilisation of people as mentioned by Ramaphosa is a reality.
“It’s a simple reality. I think that sometimes we pay too much attention to the nonsense that is spoken by people in defensive of the indefensible. Of course this is ethnic mobilisation, once again let’s pay attention to what happened in Nkandla which is what led up to these things.”
McKinley says he believes that the vast majority people who identify themselves as Zulus do not support the violence, adding that is not about Zulu’s per se, but rather about using ethnic nationalism as a political tool to mobilise desperate people.
Commenting on Ramaphosa’s announcement that the country will remain under lockdown level four, McKinley says there was a necessity to continue with lockdown as the country battles the third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic and Delta variant.
There is some reprieve for restaurants and gyms who will be able to operate under strict health regulations and with only a limited number of patrons.
Curfews from 9pm at night until 4am in the morning remain in place while schools will now only reopen on the 26th instead of the 19th of July.
McKinley says some of the differential application measures of the lockdown by Ramaphosa needs to be questioned.
“How does this or one can sort of justify okay well we are going to reopen restaurants, but we are not going to allow people to congregate in churches and these kinds of things. I think these are legitimate questions, obviously the alcohol industry is not particularly happy about the continued ban. But, it’s a balancing act, it always has been a balancing act and I think in this case probably the balance falls on continuation even though it probably could be a bit more equally implemented.”
Meanwhile, one hundred and fifty-one more people have died in South Africa after contracting the coronavirus, with the death toll now at 64,289.
The country has also recorded 16,302 infections over the past 24-hour reporting cycle, taking the total number of cases to 2,195,599.
The recovery rate is at 87.6%, which translates to 1,922,601 people who have recuperated so far.
Listen to the interview with Dr. Dale McKinley
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