/ 29 January 2008

Class actions in an age of darkness

I guess some would call it apartheid envy. Either that, or liberal guilt associated with having had a sheltered upbringing, no television at home, or just having been too young. But there are a good few among us positively longing for a good old-fashioned riot in the streets, writes Khadija Bradlow.

I guess some would call it apartheid envy. Either that, or liberal guilt associated with having had a sheltered upbringing, no television at home, or just having been too young.

But there are a good few among us positively longing for a good old-fashioned riot in the streets.

It is, after all, a near intolerable cross to bear — not having lived the contemporary history of one’s own country.

One is, after all, hardly gripped with pain at having to read about Woodstock online, or having an encyclopedia enlighten you that the Iron Curtain wasn’t that latest hot item at Paris Fashion Week.

But the trauma of not being able to make documentaries for SABC 1 about your ”experience” and win awards at film festivals across the globe! Or tell wide-eyed white people at dinner parties how you, too, threw Molotov cocktails at the boere.

We are truly a generation that missed the bus. Talk about a crushing blow to the ego!

And yet all hope may not be lost, for a cloud looms on the horizon, replete with its silver lining. Or should one say, copper-cabled lining…

There really isn’t anything to be said about Eskom’s venture to truly turn us into the Dark Continent that hasn’t been said already. No South African with functional eardrums hasn’t heard the words ”load shedding” to the point of inducing nausea. Everyone has their story to tell about cold dinners, near collisions at non-functional traffic lights, and (horror of horrors) missing episodes of Generations.

But amid all the complaining, coupled with the platitudes from the sweet mouths of the Eskom bosses on the radio, the nation appears worryingly complacent. One would have thought the idea of ordering the salad in the restaurant for the next eight years, not to even mention the mere thought of the 2010 Soccer World Cup looming, would cringe us into action.

But in response to the sob stories being fed to us by the power utility, the mood seems to be that of resignation, of throwing up one’s hands, only to fold them meekly back into one’s lap. And then to reach for the Yellow Pages to find a generator-hire company.

It is a sorry indictment of a nation raised on loud voices of protest and the toyi-toyi. This gives us rebels without any good cause to take to the streets — a truly noble cause. So let those old apartheid-era fogeys reminisce about about how they fought on the streets, and the beaches, blah blah, blah (sniff).

The new generation of rioters are up for a far more noble cause: giving Power back to the People, literally.

Placards will have to be fashioned, t-shirts will have to be designed, marches will have to be planned.

And if all else fails, there are always the courts. Access to justice for all means exactly that; as per the Bill of Rights, anyone, no matter how youthful, has the right to approach the courts.

There are those among the complacent classes who think ”nothing can be done” by the small fry against a Goliath-like Eskom — but they would be wrong.

Though not having an illustrious history of litigation (such as the United States for instance), one of the great things about our Constitution is that it allows disgruntled citizens to institute class actions through the courts. It’s already been done several times, and in many cases successfully.

In this way, a group of ordinary people could sue a body whose actions are deemed to violate their basic rights.

One can almost picture it now, a bunch of newly-shaven youth in suits sitting in a neat row at the Constitutional Court, their stately demeanour masking their rage at having had yet another blackout during a kwaito bash. Not that the white youth should feel left out — an i-Pod also needs recharging at some time.

If the thought of scaring off international investors isn’t enough to spur on the arrogant parastatal, or the namby-pamby government into acting, maybe this one will.

It’s time to get angry again…