Thursday, April 12, 2012

Safe In South Africa?

Does anyone remember the flying, over grown, in bred Maltese poodle looking thing with the skin disease in the Never-Ending Story? That is about as real as Zuma’s statement that we are safe in South Africa.

I would like to ask President Zuma to repeat that statement face to face to the mother of the raped 9 year old little girl, to the son who found his family murdered in their home over the Easter Weekend, to the husband who’s wife was murdered in their home, to the mother of slain police constable Francis Rasuge, to the mother of the school boy who was stabbed to death for a cellphone, to the man who was stabbed by the taxi driver and the list can go and on into perpetuity. Whilst hiding behind his security entourage, speech writers and bullet proof glass, I can see how it can be easy to make utterly ridiculous statements.

The corrupt police force outnumbers the hardworking ones by the hundreds. Majority can’t shoot, won’t shoot(due to PTSD) or not allowed to shoot (pending investigations). MP’s are helping themselves to country coffers by the millions of rand each day. With more corruption coming to light each day, the economy is about as safe as we are. Our hospitals, which should arguably be one of the safest places anywhere for a person, is rife with abuse, maternal mortality, mal practice, lack of skilled staff and resources. We’re not safe in our homes, hospitals or police stations. There is not much left after that.

We all know our crime statistics cannot be trusted so I won’t waste anyone’s time with putting them in here. What’s the point? We don’t need numbers to show us how bad it is. And guess what? Here comes the flogged to hell and back, not dead yet horsey, apartheid! Regardless of the article content, someone manages to turn the tide back 25 odd years and the commentators are off behind their keyboards like the horses at the J&B Met. Let the commenting down below commence. The suffering, the inhumanity, the outrage, blah blah blah. Yes apartheid was horrible and we are better off now that it is gone, well, mostly anyway. Off your soap boxes (yes, I do see the irony here) and let go of the past. The crime is here and now, not pre-1994! Enough with the dompasses, bantu education, public segregation etc. That will, most assuredly, be followed by racist comments from all sides. Kill the white man, kill the black man, kill the Pokemon, it’s like shampooing instructions. Lather, rinse and repeat.

Now that it is out of your system, let’s get to the problem. WE (Black, White, Colored, Indian, Chinese, Hindu, Muslim, et al) are not safe in South Africa, regardless of who (Black, White, Colored, Indian, Chinese, Hindu, Muslim, et al) is shooting, stabbing, looting, hi-jacking who at any given time and location. It has become a “show me yours and I’ll show you mine” mentality nowadays. You got mugged?!  Bru, I got hijacked!  Like fashion labels. Gucci versus Prada, Robbery versus Hijacking. If we can stop back biting and complaining long enough and actually talk to each other, we might be able to find a workable, efficient and realistic solution. I’ll even get us started, so here goes. Killing 30 people for the death of 1 is not a solution, killing the Boer is not a solution, killing Malema is not a solution, a military coup de grace is not a solution, military curfew might be an option but with the state of the SANDF, I doubt that. Marches won’t work because white people never show up. We are the worst when it comes to standing together. We can moan, complain, stomp our feet but unless the Pinkish Blue Bulls are involved, we’re a no show.

I’ve mentioned what we can’t do, but what can we do? We can’t even keep our Rhino’s safe and that is something EVERYONE agrees is a huge problem, so what chance do we, as humans and fellow South Africans, have?

http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Safe-in-South-Africa-I-think-not-20120412