Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya
Last week, two unrelated events reminded me of the quote attributed to so many that I have no idea whose it was originally. “Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
The DA took the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) to the Human Rights Commission on a charge related to the union’s opposition to the Annual National Assessments (ANA) – the department of education’s tool for measuring the rates of literacy and numeracy in public schools.
The other was the taxi strike in Durban. Taxi operators brought the city’s economy to a standstill because they were not happy that some of their members’ vehicles had been impounded for various reasons, chief of which was that the taxis were operating without proper permission.
The link here is the following: many of us decide who is wrong or right on the basis of who they are and not the merits of their arguments.
Sadtu and taxis will probably make the top 10 of those most reviled in South Africa.
The two entities have a unique claim of arousing the ire of South Africans across the colour or class line – with good reason.
Sadtu has at the drop of a hat chosen to go on strike when other avenues seemed open.
They have come across as ever-ready to put the interest of their members ahead of the education enterprise as a whole.
The same goes for the taxis. There is hardly a person in South Africa – whether they have been in a taxi or have observed what was going on from a different lane – who does not have a sad or angry taxi story to tell.
All this notwithstanding, remember that even a broken clock is right twice a day.
The role that the taxi industry plays in the economy of our country demands that it be treated with greater respect than it currently is.
The tourism industry and even the Tourism minister are unhappy with Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba because he has placed what they see as onerous obstacles making travelling to South Africa unattractive.
Yet, little is said about the fact that the taxi industry has had the same complaint – that those who issue permits take their own time.
It was for this reason that the taxi industry went on an e-tolls strike. Taxis are supposed to be exempt from paying e-tolls, but need to have permits.
But the state drags its feet in issuing these, thus making the exemption purely theoretic.
I have not heard an outcry from even those who style themselves as champions of free markets and entrepreneurship like I have about how Gigaba’s actions are affecting foreign tourists.
I am no social psychology expert, but I suspect that a lot of the bad behaviour by taxi operators and drivers is a form of passive aggression by those who feel forever undermined – and their contribution to the wheels of industry turning, the tills in the supermarkets ringing and the houses of the middle classes tidy and their children’s behinds wiped clean.
It cannot be that the only engagement the state has with those who carry more people than anyone else from one point to the other, is when there is a crisis.
It goes without saying that those who break the law must be punished regardless of whether they are in shipping, airlines, rail, or run a taxi fleet.
With regards to Sadtu, it is interesting that the DA chose to lay charges against Sadtu and not against four other unions that are also opposed to the ANA. It is a remarkable act of double standards by the official opposition.
They have even forgotten that they, too, are unhappy with certain aspects of ANA.
Anyone whose opinions about ANA are based on being on any side that is opposite Sadtu’s, has a problem.
Like Tony Leon once said when he was “accused” of agreeing with Cosatu on a matter; there is no shame in being on the right side of the right argument even if it is with the wrong people.
Nobody is always right or always wrong.
If we are serious about resolving many of our issues we have as a country, we will do ourselves a favour by ridding ourselves of the “permanent heroes” or “permanent villains” mentality.
The only losers in this binary are those who believe it because they deny themselves the opportunity of hearing a potentially new perspective that might change, even improve, how we see the world.
The taxi industry is not going to disappear, and neither will the problems that five teacher unions say they have about ANA.
The history of South Africa and the world shows that those in power sooner or later engage with those who were at some point regarded as dissidents or the skunks of the world.
We might as well start talking and listening, because like a broken clock, nobody is wrong all the time… New perspectives improve our situation.