Cape Town - Amid the global furore about Black Lives Matter (BLM), spare a thought for the black poor in South Africa and express BLM in their context.
When democracy dawned in 1994, huge chunks of what Marxists called the “superstructure” were inherited. This “superstructure” are the formal and informal rules that drive societies.
The informal rules, specifically, are normative and reside in the cognitive. They thus influence thinking and define social reality or realities in our case. The country’s power dynamics, based on the rand, also manipulate them. Hence at times it appears that blacks have power without hegemony.
This is how an aspect of the South African version of BLM is playing out in the form of the current media furore on smoking. Smoking is being interpreted on the basis of the high and mighty, and not on the health of those in the informal settlements, townships and rural areas.
Yet, this is where more than 70% of the population lives. This reflects the conflict of realities that is the bane of South Africa. The government wisely banned the sale of tobacco to curb smoking as the Covid-19 pandemic affects the lungs.
This government was nogal elected by the people and, it goes without saying, it is going to make unpopular decisions, albeit based on the best interest of the people.
The government had also sensibly banned the sale of alcohol. The logic was simple, to reduce interaction between people in restaurants, bars or taverns and thus curb the spread of the virus.
Today the government should regret lifting the ban on alcohol as trauma units in hospitals are clogged with people who have been injured as a result of alcohol - be it car accidents or fights and stabbings fuelled by alcohol.
With the number of Covid-19 cases now beyond 70000, and increasing, trauma units will be desperately needed.
As for the smoking, the black elite in Sandton and Morningside buy a pack of 20 and puff away. They throw the stub away, sometimes with the cigarette only smoked half way.
In the townships and informal settlements it is different. For thousands one cigarette moves from lip to lip. There is hardly any bother if the last person is coughing or not.
There are those who roll their own smokes in brown paper, which is known as a “zol”. I recall enjoying this “zol” with fellow prisoners in Robben Island, Victor Verster or the Johannesburg Prison. We did not care who it came from, but just to get the “skyf”.
Suffice it to add the “zol” was sometimes wet. Who cared? Those who smoke dagga virtually wet the paper with saliva and the “zol” moves from person-to-person. This is what the government wanted to avoid, the spreading of the virus from mouth-to-mouth.
In the furore in the media, hardly anyone referred to this. After all, the way of life of the people in the townships, informal settlements and rural areas is of no interest. Instead, life is interpreted on the basis of the more fortunate.
At the height of the lockdown these faceless millions queued for food, yet we have the most modern economy in Africa. These millions will suffer without their smokes but won't be in body bags.
With regard to illicit cigarettes, let's assist the government to deal with the smugglers and traders in illicit products.
The count of the dead is now more than 1600 and rising. Informal settlements in Cape Town are making a massive contribution to the toll. If the tobacco ban is lifted more in the settlements and townships will add to the toll.
Hence, we should all be saying that black lives in the townships, informal settlements and rural areas also matter. God, protect us from some of our compatriots, the enemies we know.