It was with bated breath and great anticipation that the majority of South Africans tuned in to the last nights ‘Family Meeting’ with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Since Saturday we have witnessed increasing violence and mayhem in KZN and Gauteng as looters, miscreants and opportunists destroyed property, engaged in an orgy of public violence and stole with impunity.
Civil society reacted to protect their property and the ‘fake news’ mongerers had a field day disseminating their special brand of fakery on all our social networks.
BUT, instead of countering the terrible scenes of violence with positive and uplifting messages we were ALL complicit as we shared ever increasing numbers of ‘shock, gasp and horrors’ images, messages and video.
Our President went so far as to probably ruin any chances of business claiming against SASRIA Policies by saying; “Some have characterised these actions as a form of political protest. This violence may indeed have it’s roots in the pronouncements and activities of individuals with a political purpose and in expressions of frustration and anger. At the beginning of this unrest there may have been some people who sought to agitate for violence and disorder along ethnic lines. We know that the majority of our people have, out of principle, refused to be mobilised along these ethnic lines. However what we are witnessing now are opportunistic acts of criminality with groups of people instigating chaos merely as a cover for looting and theft.”
Effectively denying any chance of claiming against a SASRIA Policy.
BUT
The one question that our President failed to answer in his somewhat rambling address last night was this one:
“What is in it for me?”
When faced with acts of violence or insurrection or anti-social behaviour in ones own home the Father will bring out the Carrot or the Stick or a combination of both as an incentive to correct said behaviour. Then at least we will know; “What is in it for me? The carrot or the stick!”
Unfortunately our ‘Father who art Ramaphosa’ did neither and only rambled on about how he was the CiC of the SANDF and that he would be meeting twice a day with the structures.
President Ramaphosa missed a great opportunity to make a decisive decision that would send a strong message to the MAJORITY of South Africans that he had their backs.
He could have done one of two things:
- Downgraded our Lockdown to Level 5 for two weeks or
- Declared a State of Emergency
Instead we had the misfortune of watching a man we trusted and relied upon bumble and mumble his way into ‘just another President’ with his eye on his job and NOT on his PEOPLE.
Alan Straton
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