End protest violence

JUST last week an article reported a shooting that took place due to gangrelated violence, injuring three minors and another two young men (Cape Times, Friday, September 29, page 3).

Prior to this, we were informed of another minor being shot in the mouth, not by any gang members but by the rubber bullet of a policeman (Cape Times, Friday, September 15, page 4). What’s interesting to me is another similarity in these stories, and that’s what we find the people of our communities doing; protesting violently.

First we see violent protesting that leads to shooting, as in the case of the policeman, and then we see shooting that leads to violent protesting, as in this recent gang news. Surely this cannot be.

Our response as South Africans cannot be to stoop to the level of those whom we protest against. Shooting, tyre burning, stone throwing are one and the same. It’s violence. If this is our strategy, then truthfully it is ourselves we protest against. Every single one of us has an ethical responsibility as people, as communities and as South Africans to set an example of how things ought to be.

A close friend of mine’s brother actually thought and commented that he felt more secure in the mix with a gang than in his own community.

If we as the people of a community can’t set the example of how things ought to be, how can there ever be that which we protest for?

We take a stand against gang violence. We take a stand against police violence. May we take a stand against protest violence, and do all this in peace.

Jeanique van Blerk Retreat