(In)Security Theater

Abstract

Spectacle is central to protest efficacy, yet the term performance has a history of being used pejoratively to discredit both protestors and their causes. This deflects analysis from the ubiquitous tactical performances enacted by institutional representatives themselves. Following Cape Town mayor Dan Plato's 2020 dismissal of an eviction resistance on the grounds that it was a “staged act,” this article identifies various repertoires of performative intimidation enacted by local authorities against South African land occupiers during 2019–22. These staged acts were strategically performed with a dual audience in mind: one direct and the other, necessarily, oblique. In recasting such repertoires as rational actions in response to radical acts, municipal officials control the means of identifying and critiquing cynical public performance.