Political paralysis triggered unrest and looting, says activist

Will the recent weeks of unrest and looting have long-term consequences socioeconomically and how can the government prevent another “insurrection”?

Accountant and activist Khaya Sithole said the recent unrest was a build up of social anxieties waiting to explode.

“If we look at the deep-rooted anxiety that exists across different parts of society, you can potentially say a lot of the issues were mentioned before.

“What was missing was a universal understanding of what it would mean if these issues were unresolved,” he said.

“When I looked at what could be a trigger, I tried to figure out whether it wasn’t a confluence of the pre-existing social anxieties and also the political paralysis – that intersection was important.”

The activist said political paralysis was the trigger.

“It was clear there was a political paralysis that went on for a long time and the epicentre of that was the question of the ANC as a party and its internal wars.”

Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman said disaster, emergency and urgency were words government should remember to help overcome social issues in SA.

“Government is failing to maintain this country and when they try fix all the maintenance issues, it becomes too expensive and delays processes,” said Sooliman.