Protests in Brazil over inequality should worry South Africa's government. (AFP)
ANC leaders in government, be warned: the people are restless.
The people are patient, but they will never stay patient forever. The people can tolerate a lot, but they will never tolerate it forever. A day will come when they say: "Enough of this shit." Their anger will be felt and the nation will be shaken. This time they won't be fighting against an enemy; they will be facing off against those they love. They will be throwing rocks at people they once stood next to many years ago when facing guns during apartheid. They will be marching against people they shared prison cells with.
We have a choice to ensure that day never comes. No one should rest easy while the people are restless. We are perilously close to the edge and there are people such as Julius Malema who are more than willing to push us over it. It is not because he wants to see the country destroyed. In fact, I believe he genuinely wants to see the country and its people prosper. But his voice might trigger something dangerous for the ANC-led government. Let us go back to a volatile time in 2011.
In 2011, dictatorships everywhere were being toppled by the citizens of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. In Syria, people are still trying to get rid of a tenacious dictator. These revolutions did not have one leader; they were led by the people themselves. They were their own moral voice and authority. They distrusted their leaders so much that they wanted to get rid of the regime without choosing a new leader.
Two years later, democratic nations are under threat. While everyone is focusing on the protests in Turkey and Brazil, Indonesia is also facing its own protests. Indonesia's anger was driven by the end of a fuel subsidy. Brazil and Indonesia's economies are slowing down and the value of their currency has fallen. South Africa's own currency has fared worse than these two economies. Although our economic growth has slowed down, it has not slowed down as much as Brazil, which is at 0.9% of gross domestic product.
Instead of focusing on the problem, Brazil's president said something I'd imagine someone from our own government might say: people are engaging in "information terrorism".
In Brazil just over the last week, the country saw more than 200 000 protesters taking to the streets against their own government. They were speaking out against violence, corruption and poor public services. The protests were triggered by an increase in transport fares. These complaints are incredibly similar to those that South Africa faces. Brazil, along with South Africa, is one of the world's most unequal countries.
Brazil's largest paper, Fohla de Sao Paulo, said: "All that President Dilma Rousseff managed to say [through a spokesperson], on an absolutely spectacular day like [Wednesday], was that youth protests are legitimate. Ok, they are, yes.
"It all seemed so wonderful in the Brazil oasis, and suddenly we are reliving the demonstrations of Tahrir Square in Cairo, so suddenly, without warning, without a crescendo. We were all caught by surprise. From paradise, we have slipped at least into limbo. What is happening in Brazil?"
An Oxfam report stated: "In China, the top 10% now take home nearly 60% of the income. Chinese inequality levels are now similar to those in South Africa, which is now the most unequal country on earth and significantly more unequal than at the end of apartheid."
"Oxfam research has shown that because it is so unequal in South Africa, even with sustained economic growth, a million more people will be pushed into poverty by 2020 unless action is taken."
A 24-year-old advertising executive in Cairo said in an interview during the Egyptian uprising: "We are suffering from corruption, oppression and bad education. We are living amid a corrupt system which has to change."
In their book Why Nations Fall, Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson stated that Egypt did not fall because of dictatorship, but because people felt they were poor because the country was ruled by a narrow elite that organised society for their own benefit at the expense of the people. "Political power has been narrowly concentrated, and has been used to create great wealth for those who already possess it."
What does this all mean for South Africa? In an effort to save money, the government can ill afford to take the grant away from the people. The government needs to act and be seen to be acting against corruption. The rich and those connected to power must not be seen to be getting richer while the poor remain poor. In South Africa, there is a perception that there is corruption taking place. The more these perceptions persist, the more agitated people will get. Then there will come a tipping point.
We have witnessed the rise in service delivery protests over the past few years. Over and above that, the media has made a lot of noise about the rise of President Jacob Zuma's home in Nkandla, which is said to cost more than R200-million – not to mention the massive outcry after the Guptas landed a plane at Waterkloof Air Force Base – and still nothing happened to them.
In Gauteng, the setting up of e-tolls has frustrated many people. No one thing will trigger the people if an uprising against government ever takes place. Its leader won't be Malema. It will be the people leading themselves. It will be a collection of events that cause the people to say ENOUGH! I don't want that day to come. I like where I stay. I like the life that I live, and we have to do everything we can to make sure that day never comes.
I don't think people would be marching because they want to topple the ANC-led government, because I don't believe they really trust anyone else to run the country. People will be marching to demand that the ANC in government does better. They won't be asking for regime change, and the ruling party would be wise to heed this warning from our peers.