Apologise to women of Helenvale

THE call – “Helenvale mothers should take off their pyjamas, get dressed and fight the rise of crime and gangsterism themselves” – by mayor Athol Trollip is not tasteful and smacks of his regard or lack thereof for the women of Helenvale.

To continue further and state “it is time to take off your pyjamas and take action against crime” and also “around here, I see women in their pyjamas at ALL HOURS of the day” is a degrading rhetoric and to be condemned in the strongest sense. It is inhumane, insulting and insensitive talking of wives, mothers and daughters.

Women should lodge a complaint with the Equality Court.

The issue of crime, in particular in the Helenvale area, has been a well-planned and crafted community environment, which has been created by the architects of apartheid, designed to keep our people in poverty. Much has been attained in the Helenvale area over the past few years in terms of housing and community upliftment.

To publicly stand up, being the executive mayor, and make a statement like this makes one wonder if this is the plan that the mayor so boldly announced prior to the local elections as to how he would fight crime. Rule No 1 about racism, according to migrant tales, is that a person must never generalise. The mayor would avoid a lot of harm by restraining from labelling and categorising people.

The mayor should learn that when people are addressed in a hostile, reprimanding manner, and generalising as to common behaviour or pattern, one finds oneself guilty of wanting to indicate that one is different or even superior to others. This is exactly what mayor Trollip’s statement alludes to and should be condemned, and the mayor must apologise to residents of the metro. This the mayor should do as a matter of urgency to ensure speedy justice for aggrieved parties.

I want to state as fact that there is no such thing as national or cultural character because societies are too complex. One cannot be a learned professional as the honourable mayor and still make oneself guilty of generalisation in this day and age. It is totally unacceptable and this should be taught at school and to adults. It is a grave mistake to generalise about ethnic groups, communities and society.

Athol Trollip represents a certain political ideology and, based on his leaders’ views and statements long before him, it sounds like a statement of a particular political group.

For generations, the citizens of South Africa lived in a society divided by apartheid, which was strictly enforced by the government of South Africa and this system was defeated at the cost of grave suffering. The vision of a society free from gender oppression and inequality must be advanced, promoted and all avenues explored to ensure gender equality is protected in our metro and the country as a whole.

A society free from all forms of gender oppression and inequality is what we all aspire to and it is on this premise that we cannot allow our leaders and professionals to be casual when occupying executive seats, and rather be accountable and do what is right – apologise.

We have moved many strides since the advent of our democracy and attained many rights. Never can we sit by idly and pretend we do not know the vocabulary of ill-intent or remarks suggesting that one people are less than another.