SA needs more than luck – it needs a miracle
THERE are times when I think that the patina of civilisation and culture that we all confess to share is cracking – we are returning to the barbarians.
What happened last week was something out of a macabre dream. A colloid of brigands, corsairs and scallywags were manipulated and lovingly coaxed to go on a spree of death and destruction.
Now every time I put the television on, I am reminded of what happened, not to mention the sanitised excuses and explanations that are floating around in pandemic-thick air.
They are all singing from the same hymn sheet that it was a well co-ordinated ambush, well-orchestrated and daringly choreographed with deadly precision.
Those thugs were nothing but the grand delusion of the weak, vulnerable and gullible – the sheep of South Africa who do not have the strength to lead, but only to be led. It inevitably leads to their slaughter.
It is an anathema and a global embarrassment. For days, a jittery and sketchy Minister in the Presidency kept the death toll at 72, then it escalated to an erratic 117. Then 212 and now, kaboom! A bold and casual 250.
What's happening here? Something does not pass the smell test. There was secrecy in the delay as her words breezed out like veils of moire in her daily briefings. The SAPS have earned the appellation as the Hide and Seek champions of SA.
Where were the politicians and councillors? During the August 1985 Inanda Riots, Amichand Rajbansi, the then chairperson in the Ministers Council in the House of Delegates, landed at the scene with a helicopter.
Even opposition leader of Solidarity JN Reddy was there. It seems like our representatives were tucked safely behind high walls and electric fences in their uMhlanga condos.
As innuendo and conjecture postulate, I don't know what to make of this. Was this a seagullsfollow-the-trawler situation or even a monkey-see-monkey-do propulsion?
This whole situation is emblematic in that it could be the modus operandi for future dissents and strikes.
In a society that is a breeding ground for paranoia, where social media platforms fuel scuttlebutt and gossip like a forest fire, the stunning suspense and visceral terror of another doomsday will always be around the corner.
Passivity and silence have their own ways of making things worse, of sustaining the deterioration of situations that might have otherwise been salvaged. Doubt and uncertainty too are corrosive agents that can eat away at society.
South Africa was supposed to be a land of miracles, where evil was brought to light and purged, where the most pernicious flaws could be put right, and where generous liberty fulfilled its promises troubled hearts will be troubled no more. South Africa, it seems, needs more than luck – it needs a miracle.
KEVIN GOVENDER | Durban