Nokuku Dube wig snatching proves patience, respect for ANC almost all gone

The slow – now accelerating – collapse of Eskom is for most South Africans the worst thing that’s happened since the Covid lockdowns. It may also be a blessing in disguise, for it’s beginning to prise loose the ANC’s death grip on power.

The country has never been more united and vocal in its condemnation of the government’s ineptitude. The public passivity that has seen a plunge in voter registrations, as well as in election turnouts, may be changing.

Sure, the revelations that came out of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture about the looting of national assets during the administration of former president Jacob Zuma angered people.

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But the scale and remoteness from the daily lives of ordinary people – R1.5 trillion of taxpayer money in a country where 29 million live off social grants while just over five million people contribute 40% of total tax revenue – meant the fury was largely confined to the middle class.

Eskom is different. Whether you sullenly but dutifully pay for your power in suburbia or gleefully and illegally tap into it in your township, virtually everyone is affected. Every day. Load shedding is like a vampire mosquito that is drawing debilitating amounts of blood.

And now it’s unmistakably the blood of those who President Cyril Ramaphosa likes to refer to as “our people”, meaning black Africans.

This week, thousands marched on ANC offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg in #PowerToThePeople protest actions by the Democratic Alliance. Remarkably, by a significant margin, most of those taking part, certainly in the march on Luthuli House, the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg, were black.

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Equally remarkably, the large number of sjambok and club-wielding “defenders” that the ANC in the past mobilised and bussed in “to protect” the sacred turf of Luthuli House against the political infidel, was vastly reduced.

As it turned out, except for sjambokking a few white DA supporters who had become isolated from the main body of marchers, the ANC thugs honestly didn’t seem to have their hearts in it. There are other signs of change in the air.

Previously, South Africa’s seething masses understood well the limits of disaffection. It’s always been acceptable to blockade public highways with burning tyres and other barriers, in response to failed service delivery. It’s even been okay to pelt hapless motorists with rocks.

But now public anger is becoming more directly focused on the ANC. On Tuesday, residents of the Enoch Mgijima municipality in the Eastern Cape, laid siege at the venue hosting the ANC’s 111th birthday celebrations.

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Angry at being without electricity for a month, they prevented ANC delegates from entering a gala dinner presided over by the party’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula.

At one stage, the residents corralled one of the delegates, ANC Women’s League provincial task team leader Nokuku Dube, and bombarded her with complaints and insults, shouting that the dinner was “an insult” to the people.

In a viral video, Dube can be seen remonstrating with the crowd when, out of the blue, a woman protester sneaks up behind her and snatches her hair weave from her head. The protester then dashes into the crowd to roars of laughter, with Dube tottering in high heels in pursuit.

The incident is not as trivial as it appears. It is another sign of the waning respect for the ANC. The Dube comedy turn is part of a sea change. When deference turns to derision.

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That’s the moment when you should start feeling nervous. Especially if you’re a politician in Africa. And even more so if you’re a member of the governing party.