1/ In South Africa, there is a dichotomy being drawn between elite instigators and spontaneous masses, the first lighting the match, while the second proceeds to give the unrest its own, autonomous, potentially progressive dynamic. I think this is a false dichotomy. 2/ The Zumaist machine is itself a mass-based organisation. It ruled the country for a decade, played the ANC to a stalemate when it lost in 2017, and it remains in control of large swathes of the provincial and local state.