Anarchy reigns
ANARCHY. Anarchy is defined as “a state of disorder due to lack of government or control (from the Greek an ‘without’ plus ‘archos’ ruler)”.
We have, in name, a government, but the second part of the definition is pertinent: “without control”.
The recent violence in Kleinmond is shocking and it seems as if people, trying to protect their property by firing a weapon, were arrested.
On a RSG talk show, it became clear that there is an enormous theft out of police custodianship of weapons; the experts on the show were convinced that this is only possible by means of “insider action”. Of course, this makes a mockery of the so-called “gun laws” (which are at the heart of the trouble – guns handed in for destruction seem to be sold for gain; this is serious; should carry the same penalties proscribed for delinquent gun owners.) Law-abiding citizens pay for licensing, competency certificates, gun safes, etc; but the gangsters get access to loads of weapons either handed in bygun-owners, or worse from the theft or illegal sales of guns confiscated or held as “exhibits” for pending criminal cases.
Hout Bay is not a peaceful place any more, despite the accommodating attitude of the-then residents towards the people of the informal settlement, which now disrupt law and order.
There is a continuous assault on the Metro rail system with millions lost on a continuous basis because the railway is either vandalised or torched.
Twenty of the “MyGeorge” buses acquired for a public transport system were torched and destroyed, a huge capital loss.
Recently, kilometres of cable “theft” incapacitated the Gautrain at a replacement cost of millions of rand; this is not theft, it is sabotage and perpetrators should face treason charges or should be shot on sight.
The same applies to the heartless killers of elephant and rhino; in the modern era, this is simply unspeakable since these species may soon be annihilated.
Animals, like us, are simply “packages of specially organised DNA” and should have the same rights as human DNA constructs.
Schools are burnt because of border disputes in Limpopo.
Soweto residents, if I have it correctly, steadfastly refuse to pay for electricity; as informal the “settlements” are, so informal are the electricity connections.
ANC party members are shot at random in KwaZulu-Natal.
Farmers are murdered on a daily basis; rape, plunder and murder is rife.
Road usage is notoriously lawless; the constitutional, supreme and appeals courts cannot keep up with transgressions by leading political parties.
The euphemistically dubbed “protest actions” with burning tyres and rocks blocking roads and rocks hurled at cars now form part of the daily broadcasted “traffic reports”.
We have seen, in sharp contrast to the general mayhem, peaceful protests to remove some of the underlying causes for this situation, in sharp contrast to the unseemly and violent protests by for example students, who should know better or should have better judgment.
There are also rumours that an Indian family is trying to usurp the State Pension Fund after having diverted billions of taxpayers’ money into their pockets.
The government itself is in a state of anarchy; the ruler, a ruler with apparently no financial savvy either, for the umpteenth time sanctioning the “bailing out” of a financially malodorous and bankrupt SAA.
There is only one word for this huge and awful mess: Anarchy.
You guess the remedy. Ben Smit Melbosstrand