Cadre Culture - Warning From South Africa

South Africa has been hit by rioting, violence and chaos in recent days following the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma. The arrest has triggered a wider fallout relating to high levels of inequality and frustration in the country, resulting in a growing number of reported fatalities. 

Reflecting on events Alliance for Community Action Executive Director Laura Miti writes, “I wonder, would South Africa have been better prepared to anticipate, and respond to, the current looting and insane destruction of property, had their government acted appropriately, to prevent and respond to the series of xenophobic attacks?” 

“It seems to me that a population that largely got away with viciously attacking foreigners has turned on itself,” she continues. 

Miti says that she hopes President Lungu and the PF are watching the events in South Africa closely in light of the rise of cadreism and violence in Zambia during their time in office. 

“Zambians have watched helplessly as the PF has deliberately built its cadres into a violent, lawless monster force that gets away with stuff like: 

1. beating up police officers inside police stations. 

2. attacking and vandalising radio stations for broadcasting anything that the party does not like. 

3. brazenly disrupting public gatherings in hotels while cadres show their faces on camera. 

4. frisking ordinary citizens for illegal taxes. 

5. collecting fees that belong to councils and becoming super rich on public funds. 

6. routinely driving dangerously on the roads, while bullying other road users. This, as police watch helplessly. (Almost saluting.) 

7. storming government offices to harass civil servants. 

8. acting as a violent force that beats up opposition members in elections. 

9. creating parallel "law enforcement" structures that even protect the President in public, sidelining the police.  

10. sending threatening audios and videos to civic actors on which they, again openly, show their faces,” Miti writes. 

“I guess the question is, do President Lungu and the PF leadership honestly imagine that they are in control of this lawless force they have created? Be afraid Zambia, be very afraid of the lawlessness PF has introduced into our country. We must, as a people, never lie to ourselves that we will be spared the consequences of our choices,” She concludes.