Four demonstrators were shot dead Monday, August 1 in a Johannesburg township, during a protest rally against rising electricity prices. The dispute is swelling in this country, which remains despite everything one of the most developed on the African continent.
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South African police opened fire, but it is too early to say who killed the protesters during a violent rally, in which a public building was set on fire and roads blocked off with burning tires. This demonstration, Monday, August 1, in the township of Tembisa – a suburb northeast of Johannesburg – denounced the rise in the price of electricity and more generally of services in a country plagued by inequality and unemployment.
OIt is still a long way from the riots of last summer, when supporters of former President Jacob Zuma, arrested for corruption, set the country on fire. The death toll had reached 350. But beyond this legal episode, the anger of a large part of the South African population remains.
A possible social explosion feared by the former South African head of state Thabo Mbeki, the same man who succeeded Nelson Mandela to the presidency in the 2000s. “One of my fears is that we are going to have our own version of the Arab Spring” he said. And to add: “You can’t have that many unemployed, poor, people facing this anarchy with corrupt leaders.” A premonitory statement made only ten days ago. Thabo Mbeki then described South Africa as a time bomb. The former president criticizes the current head of state Cyril Ramaphosa for not having kept his promise to fight against poverty and inequality.
Three decades after the end of apartheid, South Africa is a cauldron ready to explode. The fight against corruption remains limited, there are ethnic blockages, and above all enormous inequalities persist, fueled by inflation. The powers in place for more than 30 years have not reduced the dizzying contrast between the most affluent neighborhoods and the townships, crime has exploded. A third of the population is unemployed, almost two thirds among young people.
This situation arouses xenophobic reflexes. An anti-migrant current led by a black leader from Soweto opposes the arrival of foreign workers in South Africa, a country which remains attractive to many Africans from all over the continent.