FIDDLING WHILE BONTEHEUWEL BURNS

NO AMOUNT of political grandstanding, imbizos, finger-pointing press conferences, or mud-slinging will ease the challenges the residents of Bonteheuwel face daily.

Gangs are holding the residents hostage. There is drug abuse. There is crime. There is death. This in a community just like anywhere else; parents are raising children, taking them to school, going to work, buying bread from the corner shop. But unlike anywhere else, they do it with the constant threat of shootings and the possibility of being hit by stray bullets.

For this reason, the residents took to the streets on Tuesday.

They were met by police before the protests had even begun. They were man-handled. They were dispersed.

Police Minister Bheki Cele came to meet the residents on Wednesday. He listened to the same concerns they have been raising for years.

Did he come with a plan? No. He promised an imbizo.

Yesterday, after they had been ejected from the public meeting to which they were invited, ward councillor Angus McKenzie and mayco member for safety and security JP Smith stood alongside community safety MEC Dan Plato in a DA-spangled media offensive, pointing out Cele’s flawed methodology.

The continued grandstanding, using the anger of the people as political collateral, must stop. You fiddle while Bonteheuwel burns.

Stop pointing fingers, set aside your egos and find a way to work together. Chasms are crossed when people on both sides decide to stop arguing about why they can’t get across and start building a bridge.