We must not underplay what the instigators of last week’s devastating events in SA wanted to achieve. What we saw was a malevolent plan to take us to war and turn our beautiful, peaceful, imperfect and democratic country into a broken nation and failed state.
It was a deliberate and calculated campaign to turn poor against rich, black against white and Indian, Zulu against Xhosa, haves against have-nots — and for the instigators to watch as we shot each other, invaded each other’s homes, barricaded ourselves against each other, railed against each other and ultimately killed each other.
These are not nice people. They torched more than 30 trucks so there would be food shortages in KwaZulu-Natal. They wanted starvation. They wanted bedlam and bloodletting. They wanted lawlessness. They wanted to give us a place where the armed man is in charge, while the woman and the child get violated and are at the mercy of the militia. These are terrible people. Last week they were at the door.
So take a bow, SA. You defeated the men — and it is always largely men — who romanticise war and want to drag us all into it. What you achieved last week was no mean feat. The police were nowhere to be seen, while many of our political leaders were cowering in their homes, silent. They knew that it is their factional battles and their greed that have brought us to the door of disaster.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his televised address to the nation on Friday evening, admitted to the government’s failure.
“We must acknowledge that we were poorly prepared,” he said. “While we commend the brave actions of our security forces on the ground, we must admit that we did not have the capabilities and plans in place to respond swiftly and decisively.”
That is an understatement. They were caught with their pants down. They let the people of this country down when we needed them most. There should be consequences for this.
The likes of Duduzane and Duduzile Zuma, whose mother was Mozambican, should at the very least know the history of that country. In the 1980s Mozambicans were being eaten by lions in the Kruger National Park while attempting to flee the war in that country.
Take a step back and think about what happened last week. There are many supporters of Jacob Zuma, the former president, who have been taking to social media to applaud the acts of arson that took place. Zuma’s children have actively encouraged the looting and burning.
We should not allow them to get away with it. Do they, sitting in their comfortable homes in fancy suburbs, know what war is like? War is the long queues of poor people in Ulundi, KwaZulu-Natal, hoping to get some groceries before they run out.
War should not be glamorised. It is terrible. It is devastating. Do not wish war on anyone. War means the law of the jungle holds sway: women, the weak and children are trampled upon. Rights do not exist.
KwaZulu-Natal today is an example of what these people wanted us to live through. Do you want to live in a suburb that is barricaded against visitors and its own black residents? That is the result of war. When people are endangered they will take steps, poorly thought through and unsustainable in many cases, to protect themselves. Militias form.
In war zones there are no rules except the word of the Big Man. He takes the food for his own and himself. The rest fight over the scraps. There is no security, no recourse to the law, no order.
The likes of Duduzane and Duduzile Zuma, whose mother was Mozambican, should at the very least know the history of that country. In the 1980s Mozambicans were being eaten by lions in the Kruger National Park while attempting to flee the war in that country.
That is what they wanted for your children. They, in the meantime, would have been sitting pretty in their houses in Dubai. The warmongers are never with the people they have devastated. You don’t have far to look: the children of Zimbabwe’s former looter-in-chief Robert Mugabe live in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, while their poor countrymen have to wade through the Limpopo River to flee poverty in Zimbabwe.
So take a bow, SA. Last week it was the brave men and women of Soweto who said enough is enough. It was the brave women of Vosloorus who said my son will join those who defend the local shopping centre. It was the taxi drivers in Gqeberha who said the shopping mall that burns down means my route and livelihood will be destroyed.
Take a bow, SA. You brought us back from the brink of war and for that we are all grateful. You frustrated the insurrectionists. You were beautiful and brave and you stood up for law, for order, for justice and for your democracy. They failed to break you.
The fight is not over. They are still here. Stay vigilant, stay awake.
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