Politicising tragedy in poor taste

OUR hearts go out to the families of the five children who died when the heavy ring from a high-mast light fell on them in Soshanguve. It would appear that attempted cable theft left the light unstable and the ring fell on the children, aged six to 12, while they were underneath.

Considering the nature of this tragedy, we find it in poor taste that certain local politicians have chosen to politicise this. In its statement – while claiming they “cannot attach blame until we have the full picture”, the ANC nonetheless suggests the DA-led administration is solely to blame.

The ANC claims it is “for not being more vigilant about this damaged light pole in particular, and service delivery in general”.

The party says it does not want to use the families’ anguish or community anger to drive sentiment. Yet this is what it proceeds to do both in its statement and by blocking the mayor from visiting the families.

Clearly, if facilities in Soshanguve were better, it would be safer for children to play outside. Clearly, if we did not have cable theft, the mast may not have been compromised and, clearly, if it was reported to be dangerous it should have been fixed so this did not happen.

We hope for a quick investigation by law enforcement agencies to establish what happened and welcome the call to escalate the matter to involve Gauteng Premier David Makhura.

We also welcome the attention being paid to cable theft through the creation of a special metro and hope for arrests.

We welcome too the call to tackle drug abuse, which has been linked to crimes such as cable theft. But, what we cannot condone are the actions of those who prevented the mayor from sharing a compassionate word with the bereaved on behalf of the City, and for him to give the assurance that whatever steps are necessary to prevent similar tragedies in the future, are taken.