East Rand family tragedy points to disconnectedness

How well do you know your neighbour? Do you interact and share stories? Or is it a question of minding your own business and not caring about what happens over the fence?

The recent incident on the East Rand, where a father allegedly kept his family captive in their home for years, is a case in point.

Neighbours did not see anything amiss when the children did not go to school or play loudly like others normally do.

It is important that we know something about our neighbours to avoid tragedies. Although most people will argue that we should not invade the privacy of our neighbours, it is important that we keep a watchful eye.

When you know what is happening at your neighbours, you can plan better and intervene timeously. The alleged starvation, beatings and electrocution at the East Rand home suggest that we have lost our neighbourliness. Individual families now operate in isolation.

The way of life in many black townships might be dismissed as invasive, but the good thing in such areas is that your neighbours will keep an eye on your property.

The time has come for us to discuss the kind of neighbourhood we seek for our families. The East Rand case can repeat itself if we continue to avoid contact and bury ourselves in digital relations on Twitter and Facebook.

The East Rand family could have been rescued earlier if contact with neighbours had been allowed. The father was the only one who interacted with his neighbours, including tenants, and to them he was "a perfect gentleman" who went out on a limb to help others.

But neighbours who heard the childrens' cries and ignored them should hang their heads in shame. All that was needed was a phone call to the police.

Our jobs, technology, and sometimes our personalities, render us insular. We build artificial walls around ourselves and live happily in our cocoons without caring about what happens around us. It does not take much to be neighbourly. A tragedy could have been prevented.