Civil society warned against including ‘big business’ in anti-Zuma protests

An expert on civil society issues and professor at Wits University has warned that the involvement of big business in the current protests could backfire for civil society as business would always have their own narrow agenda.

Patrick Bond, Professor at the Wits School of Governance in Johannesburg, also said he hoped that, in the light of the paramilitary-style threat from Umkhonto we Sizwe members, Friday’s protest marches in Johannesburg and Pretoria would be peaceful.

“I hope the protests are vibrant, peaceful and successful,” Bond said.

Umkhonto we Sizwe members have vowed to protect the ANC headquarters in the Johannesburg city centre against the protesters, who would be marching to demand that President Jacob Zuma resign.

The country was outraged by Zuma’s decision to axe Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas in particular; a decision he took without consulting the ANC top leadership.

Jonas, former Transport Minister Dipuo Peters and lately, Tina Joemat-Pettersson have since resigned as ANC parliamentarians after their axing from Cabinet.

Regarding the protests, Bond expressed worry about the involvement of AngloGold Ashanti chairperson Sipho Pityana as a key figure in Save SA, the organisation leading the anti-Zuma campaign.

“But I also hope that since AngloGold Ashanti’s chairperson is a key figure in Save SA, civil society activists can go beyond the banal pro-Zuma versus pro-Treasury dichotomy and think more carefully about the crisis.

“If big business is involved for its own narrow interests, then companies like AngloGold Ashanti should be scrutinised because in places ranging from here at home to Colombia to Ghana, those interests are profoundly anti-social, anti-labour and anti-environment,” Bond said

“As Frantz Fanon once put it, ‘the great danger that threatens Africa is the absence of ideology’,” he added.

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