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Opinionista

Disruption can be a force for social change

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Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar was born in Cape Town and raised by his determined mother, grandparents, aunt and the rest of his maternal family. He is an admitted attorney (formerly of the corporate hue), with recent exposure in the public sector, and is currently working on transport and infrastructure projects. He is a Mandela Washington Fellow, a Mandela Rhodes Scholar, and a WEF Global Shaper. He had a brief stint in the contemporary party politic environment working for Mamphela Ramphele as Agang CEO and chief-of-staff; he found the experience a deeply educational one.

Disruption has an important role in demanding change, and was used as part of our fight for freedom. We see how effective the tool has been used by the #FeesMustFall movement, and even this week, as Parliamentary workers opted to disrupt Parliamentary Portfolio Committees. Disruption, in itself, will not solve the myriad of problems in South Africa, but it can be a start.

We once spoke to each other. We subscribed to noble ideas and our leaders were perceived to be guided by values, principles and a greater sense of service. Things have changed. Today, we have leaders who are often driven by their own agenda, often unable to handle the events of the day and individuals who reflect a very narrow, dated and polarised view of the world.

We only need to look at the breakdown of communication between students and leaders at our tertiary institutions, or even more concerning, the broken telephone between citizens and its elected government, in order to appreciate the risks of this breakdown. As a result, the emptiness is filled with opportunistic noise. We have been left with very few options, and so disruptions and calls for change enter the space with a propensity for the status quo to react simply by trying to police it away.

We transitioned from a repressive and violent apartheid regime to a democratic and constitutionally mandated system. For this, South Africa is remembered from afar with much nostalgia and admiration, yet we don’t fully appreciate our own story (beyond the “miracle moment’). A recurring problem to this noise is that we don’t understand the details of that compromise and negotiation, and so are left with the platitudes and the noise.

Our democratic founders should step into the breach, and explain why certain decisions were made. Leaders who participated and lead the transition to a democratic South Africa, should speak openly and widely about the costs of that transition, and why they were willing to press forward.

There is a malaise that hangs over South Africa that acts as a stranglehold over our present and our future. It hangs heavy in the air, and often leaves many with a sense of hopelessness and helplessness. Sweeping statements that the transition to democracy has failed, often go unchallenged, which is even more reason for our founders to take us into their confidence, and explain that the transition was not simply about compromise. There are reasons to criticise and question our transition to democracy but we need to start engaging meaningfully in the topic, instead of accepting the rhetoric. When leaders make the decision not to take citizens into their confidence, then we are bound to encounter a breakdown in the social fabric that we are currently witnessing.

We require participation and sacrifice, in order to confront the vacuum of leadership, but also to start thinking about how we solve many of these problems. There are a number of challenges that are not being tackled, and these extend far beyond the need for good governance or accountability. It is not enough to speak out. We are right to criticise those leaders who are now willing to speak out only after they have left public office. It is not enough to criticise the current crop of leaders, but rather our retired leaders should reflect on their own failures, and commit their energies to developing the solutions that South Africa needs and making the case to citizens for this to be the solution.

Disruption has an important role in demanding change, and was used as part of our fight for freedom. We see how effective the tool has been used by the #FeesMustFall movement, and even this week, as Parliamentary workers opted to disrupt Parliamentary Portfolio Committees.

However, disruption, in itself, will not solve the water crisis or provide answers to how to tackle unemployment or to provide alternative options to growth or the even more pervasive problem of having the most unequal society on the globe. The disruption, or simply talking to each other, will not, on its own, lead to establishing new industries or exploring the viability of developing industrial crops or providing real alternatives to the reported three million young South Africans who have no income, and little chance of a better future. The solutions may not be apparent at the moment, but there does need to be new thinking to turn the disruptive energy into real structural change. Disruption may garner the support and attention but we need to start confronting the elephants in South Africa. DM

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