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President Jacob Zuma, made an observation about the criminality seen in looting that was associated with riots in Soweto at the beginning of the year, the riots were allegedly sparked by the shooting and killing of a teenager. I want to stress that the criminality alleged in the Soweto event was unacceptable.
The happenings in parts of Soweto are a social phenomenon called riots that happen in areas where there is population growth and rapid urbanization. Riots are potent to the extent that they are collective, spontaneous acts that hint towards the potential for aggression and mass hysteria in communities. Riots, for society and policy makers should be reflective moments and opportune moments to measure social attitudes and administrative capacity. Comparatively, there was also a bout of riots over the killings of Michael Brown in Missouri in 2014.
Not so long ago Britain also had its riots in 2011, in what was called the “Black Berry riots”, for the sophistication that these had in the use of blackberries to allocate targets and organize, in the Tottenham riots the death of Mark Duggan at the hands of the police was also a catalyst. I had thought that the death of Moses Tatane and Mozambican born taxi driver in the East Rand would have sparked similar lootings and rioting but it did not.
South Africans should note interesting considerations however with regards these occurrences, in the first instance all consisted in the killing of a young life with a gun; in the second instance, there was community outrage that was associated with looting; in the third instance the atleast in two cases (Brown and Duggan) the juries concluded that the police could not be held criminally liable- this means that the logic of the mass protestors was in contradiction with the logic of a jury that considers arguments and evidence. In the fourth instance, the victims were alleged to have been on the wrong side of the law and the argument was that there was excessive use of force to deal with the wrongs. In the fifth instance, the target for the lootings was shops.
In this regard the following is noteworthy, the riots that are listed above hint to an international crisis over guns- guns in the hands of the police, the history of riots including police includes the Harlem Riots of 1964 sparked by the shooting of black teenager James Powell; the 1964 Philadelphia race riots which were about police brutality;
and in the hands of Somali business men. The twenty first century clearly has enough advancement in technology that police can have protective gear, so that they do not resort to their pistols in self defense, and I think the riots are telling us that the change in policing tactics are important.
In addition, the easy access to illegal guns instead of resorting to the law and community engagements in Soweto will likely inspire the explosion of simple petty criminal matters into xenophobic confrontations, the issue about business was actually opportunistic on the part of the Soweto business chamber.
In comparative terms, we should note also that while protests may seem to say little about the wrong committed but more about the excessive use of force in response to the criminality, there are certain issues of rights and the limitless nature of the right to life. Indeed while the riots associated with the 1960s civil rights movement made a clearer statement on rights, the juries in Britain and America need to actually apply the law more sympathetically to the victim while also condemning crime.
Furthermore, law enforcement and public administration need to look at the increased sophistication and systematic approach that looters are taking and try to use mass communication through public media and social networks as opposed to force to negotiate calm- both in Missouri and London we have seen that the use of crowd/ riot control policing does not work because it becomes about people wanting to prove a point against the authorities, that they can resist, they are not scared to confront armed police and that they cannot be stopped either through arrest or through riot weapons.
The need to dev eloping public order diplomacy is even seen in service delivery protests in South Africa, the daring recklessness of people with their lives , private property and public goods is actually a message on resolve, determination, and non compromise to their authorities as oppose desperation.
The riots in London had a sophisticated flare to the extent that technology was used on in organisation and identifying targets. The Soweto riots/ loots were equally precise and systematic to the extent that they discriminated one target in favor of another and they overwhelmed the authorities, to the extent that the police were reactive rather than pro-active.
Lastly, riots in Michael Brown riots in Ferguson Missouri, London and Soweto also indicate that a community can turn on itself and looting is actually indicative of more than criminality- but a license to act beyond all restraint. When communities in Soweto and elsewhere give themselves the right to create chaos, it is also beyond the tyranny of the majority it is an indication that the law, that public order is actually the product of social agreement.
We have seen In post apartheid South Africa, at least six episodes of broken social pacts- in Khutsong/ Matatiyele; in the 2008 xenophobic violence in Townships; in Marikana; in Ekangala/Bekkersdal; in Malamulele/NorthWest and recently in Soweto. These should be looked at for lessons and pre-emption.
Percy Makholwa- works at the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements and writes in his personal capacity.
