Weaponising Grassroots Democracy: Operation Dudula’s Right-Wing Populism and the need for a Counter-Movement

• In Event: Citizen Participation & Protest in South Africa

Abstract

This article provides insight into the Operation Dudula (OD) movement which was launched in June 2021 as a practical or operational arm of the Soweto Parliament. OD claims to ‘Put South Africans First’ by removing ‘illegal’ African migrants who are uncritically positioned as criminals who are taking the jobs of South Africans. While their use of social media as a means by which to perpetuate ignorance has striking similarities with right-wing nationalism in other parts of the world including India, the United States and Brazil, this chapters argues that OD’s emergence and proliferation is best understood not as a top-down by-product of elite intervention, but as a grassroots or civic movement rooted in ordinary people’s experiences of social, political and economic exclusion. In addition to drawing from a vast range of archival material and transcriptions of speeches given by leaders of OD over the last 12 months, this article relies upon participant observation within the newly formed countermovement and campaign called Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX) which is at the coal face of the violence and intimidation presently faced by African migrants. While OD blames foreigners for South Africa’s crisis, KAAX seeks to redirect people’s grievances towards an ‘inhumane capitalist system.’ OD’s explicit claim to support ‘active citizens’ in the drive towards ‘participatory democracy’ is part of a potentially dangerous and paradoxically violent global trend which counterposes a top-down bureaucratic government and lying politicians with ordinary South Africans who are supposedly ‘voiceless.’ The call to be heard never happens in a vacuum and does not mean the same thing to everyone. By exploring the meaning of ‘voice’ in depth, we suggest that active citizenship and popular participation cannot be mobilised independently from the political and ideological terrain.

Authors

• Luke Sinwell

• Trevor Ngwane

• Terri Maggott, University of Johannesburg