Silence of rogue elephant in room

Today’s protest actions are not a racial issue; they have been forced into this dangerous corner instead of being recognised for what they are, an outpouring against a nation being robbed of its sovereignty and the shrivelling of its very soul. Like all reasonable South Africans, we are saddened by some of the violent rhetoric which has been so brazenly bandied about during this past traumatic week in our history. Most notable is the threat levelled at any march on ANC headquarters at Luthuli House by Umkhonto we Sizwe veterans to deploy 600 members and retaliate without recourse to the police. This hovers on the very brink of anarchy. It is equally scandalous that the mayor of eThekwini, Zandile Gumede, should espouse the thinking that any protests in the streets of Durban opposed to President Jacob Zuma’s latest political machinations should be recognised as treason. This graphically demonstrates the mayor’s lack of any grasp on the potentially serious realities which face us. Those opposed to Zuma would argue, perhaps justifiably, that they wear the colours of their patriotism.

But most frightening of all is the silence of the rogue elephant in the room by the country’s political leadership in attempting to allay underlying fears all round.

It is a silence which lends an air of the unfeeling arrogance which so typified any semblance of being proactive in the #FeesMustFall campaign – launched in reaction to an empty ANC promise – spinning violently out of control, or the recurring bushfire brutality of xenophobic attacks on immigrant populations living in this country.

This inertia, we would suggest, is not the mark of leadership by any definition of the word, but a callous laissez faire approach to a day likely to mark a watershed in our fragile democracy.

We pray calm heads will prevail and the racial spectre not divide us.