Beware – the daily erosion of freedoms in South Africa

WHEN asked to write a column on Freedom Day, I did not immediately agree. It is not only because I don’t like writing, but I wondered what I would say that another would not already have said, or would say with greater eloquence than I could.

I have been thinking about what little freedom we have over our own lives in many ways and how this has become worse in recent times. One of the biggest tramplers of freedom is the immense misinformation and disinformation that goes on daily.

South Africans woke up to another Donald Trump lie a few days ago. He wrote on his social media platform: “How can we be expected to go to South Africa for the very important G20 meeting when land confiscation and genocide is the primary topic of conversation? They are taking the land of white farmers and then killing them and their families. The media refuses to report on this… Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so!”

The fact that there has been no land confiscation from white farmers, or that there is no white genocide happening has not and will not stop him from repeating such lies and from this being believed by many of his followers in the USA and South Africa. Ignore it, some argue. That would be easy if these lies did not have consequences for the lives of many, who have lost their jobs and access to vital medication. The many who will lose their businesses in the auto industry and the agricultural sector will add to the devastation of the lies.

The second big lie was from the group of MPs, who visited Israel and loudly pronounced that they did not see any apartheid there. Unlike many I don’t believe that their visit was illegal, immoral yes. Without visiting Gaza or the West Bank or speaking the Palestinians, their short visit did not find any evidence of apartheid. This was similar to many visits to South Africa by delegations hosted by the apartheid government and taken to places that hid the reality of apartheid from them, and who,  like the MPs, said that blacks were happy in South Africa and had a good life, and that they did not mind being “apart” from each other.

Again, repeated lies were believed by many in South Africa and across the world. Disinformation and misinformation rob people of the ability to make informed decisions and, more dangerously, it blinds people to facts. Facts are considered falsehoods by the believers of lies. Their world view is reinforced by others on social and mainstream media, and they rest comfortably at night thinking that they have fought back valiantly against the conveyors of lies.

It's this blindness that led to thousands storming the US Capitol building a few years ago, disputing the outcome of the elections. It's this blindness that has led to mass shootings across the USA and other parts of the world. Freedom will be eroded when truth and facts are considered fake news and when false news is spread and accepted faster than any well researched and proven piece of information.

WhatsApp groups are one of the major spreaders of these news items when people just repost stuff, they have not verified themselves. We see this in family and neighbourhood groups daily. Freedom also gets eroded when government does not respect the dignity of people through its callous attitude reflected through its poor delivery of services.

The recent case of Mrs Dimakatso Mofokeng from Sebokeng in the Vaal region of Gauteng is a case in point. She died after months of raw sewage flooded her home and the municipal workers demanded a bribe to alleviate her plight. The fumes from that sewage and the uncaring attitude of the municipality killed her. This is a common feature across the Vaal area where the local municipality has all but collapsed.

This is the same region where only a few weeks ago, many of the major political parties gathered to mark Human Rights Day in Sharpeville. At these events, the anger towards the atrocities of the apartheid government were rightly recalled but very little, if any, was said about the failures of the post-apartheid government, which is visible for all to see in that area.

Freedom gets eroded when children such as Joshlin Smith and CweCwe are killed and abused. Both cases have brought to the fore the lack of meaning of freedom to the many like them. Cases of abuse in schools by teachers, who are on the sex offenders list are now a common feature of the daily news. Freedom gets eroded when respect for the diversity of the country is not adhered to by all. Likewise, the objections to wearing “red strings,” or the objections to sangoma prayers at a university dorm room, points to the difficulty of many in accepting what living in a diverse society requires.

Selective anger is another feature of this set of issues. The anger over the usage of “c -word” for Indians is justified but this must be matched with anger of the use of the “K “word by Indians. Only when we are equally angered by derogatory words and names for anybody irrespective of race, religion, class, gender, or geography will we overcome this divisiveness in our society.

While we have won the big freedoms – the right to vote, freedom of religion, association and movement and have made significant gains in addressing some of the disparities of the past such as in access to water, sanitation and electricity, these stand to be eroded with the continuing corruption at all levels of government and the uncaring attitude of much of government.

If freedom could not help Mrs Mofokeng from dying from raw sewage through her house, it will be meaningless to many who battle daily for the basics of life and who go to bed hungry and jobless. Fortunately, people and organisations across the country have not accepted this erosion as a given and are battling it daily. They exist in your area. They need your support.

Neeshan Balton is the executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media. 

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