The United Nations says the following three elements define terrorism: “(i) the perpetration of a criminal act (such as murder, kidnapping, hostage-taking, arson, and so on), or threatening such an act; (ii) the intent to spread fear among the population (which would generally entail the creation of public danger) or indirectly coerce a national or international authority to take some action, or to refrain from taking it; (iii) when the act involves a transnational element.”
In South Africa we have normalised, and are currently living with, at least the first two of these elements.
On his 702 talk radio show on Monday, 31 October, Aubrey Masango piqued my interest when he asked that people interrogate the meaning of terrorism, following the US Embassy warning that there might be a terror attack in Sandton last Saturday.
He asked why it was that the definition seemed only to refer to incidents where affluent people were in danger of being violated, and yet poor people in South Africa seem to be under siege daily.
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Sandton, as we all know, is still intact and did not in fact have a terror attack. However, what did happen on Saturday was that in Ennerdale four armed men shot 11 people in cold blood, resulting in the death of seven. The motivation? Robbing them of the chicken feet that they were selling.
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The murderers initially drove up to the vendors and attempted to rob them. When the vendors resisted and defended themselves with stones, the perpetrators drove off, but they came back on foot and shot the vendors.
Meant to terrorise
This incident is concerning for a number of reasons. One, that poor street vendors are now the targets of crime, and two, that the criminals are brazen enough to come back on foot and shoot them in broad daylight, displaying a fearlessness of repercussions.
This, to me, says that it was never about the chicken feet – it was an act meant to terrorise and strike fear. This year has also been characterised by rampant violence against immigrants accused of allegedly stealing people’s jobs and being responsible for crimes such as human trafficking and drug peddling.
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The violence has included beatings, stoning and even the setting alight of Zimbabwean immigrant Elvis Nyathi in Diepsloot.
June was marred by the as yet unaccounted-for deaths of 21 young people at Enyobeni Tavern in East London. In July, 15 people were shot in a Soweto tavern and on the same night 12 people were shot in a Pietermaritzburg tavern. As quickly as these shocking events happened they just as quickly disappeared from our society’s agenda.
The list goes on, but what is worth noting is that these criminal acts have managed to thrive because of poor law enforcement that does not focus on the societal environmental factors that lead to violence.
All these incidents happened in low-income areas. What is to be said about the psychological health of a country when poor people brutalise one another when they are already so downtrodden?
How many of the resources that were dedicated to securing the wealth of Sandton last weekend could be marshalled and directed towards combating the terror attacks that people face daily? DM168
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.
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“As quickly as these shocking events happened they just as quickly disappeared from our society’s agenda.” – Of course. Violence is so normalised in our society it’s inevitable (and expected) that tomorrow will bring yet another tragedy.
“How many of the resources that were dedicated to securing the wealth of Sandton…” – You’re making a biased assumption here. Could it be that that the LIVES, rather than the ‘wealth’, of the LGBTQ+ community and the citizens who work and trade in Sandton (many many of whom don’t actually live there) might just have been considered. Besides, there is no evidence that a credible bomb threat anywhere else would not have equally resourced.
“What is to be said about the psychological health of a country when poor people brutalise one another when they are already so downtrodden?” – The billion dollar question.
Your conclusion is based on a false premise. Firstly the terrorism you refer to in Sandton wasn’t against a district is was against the people who were there. In this case the multi class crowd who were to attend the events. Terrorism is designed to, in this case, strike terror into a population and in other cases to attack the facilities which serve the population. So your rather silly attempt to purposely misinterpret it falls flat.
The problem with the author of the article is her grasp of issues and the ability to differentiate between criminality and terrorism. Journalism is about a very important public service as Anto Harber would say, its central purpose is to inform and educate the public. When you have a journalist with no grasp of the importance of Sandton as the commercial centre of the country with thousands working in the financial institutions, hotels, restaurants, malls and shopping centres, legal offices, the Stock Exchange with thousands coming from the townships to work in Sandton. Investec alone has over 3 000 staff members.
I read the article with shock on how it went through editorial scrutiny. If she does not know that Johannesburg is the commercial capital of South Africa where investors come and get to Sandton to make deals, then there is something wrong with her head or she does not have a head at all!
To help her, terrorism is an act of indiscriminate violence that is intended to create fear for political ends and whilst it might have links to other crimes, this is what distinguishes it from criminal violence that is perpetrated for personal gain. A terrorist alert does not necessarily mean that an incident is going to take place but says that they may be such an attack and is from intelligence sources tracking known terrorist elements. Criminals may attack as a result of turf wars but if there was police or crime intelligence that was functional, such would be prevented.