Bay hit by rot as values fall apart

THE burnt body of a young teenager found at a deserted construction site, two students raped on a university campus, an elderly couple fatally attacked in their seaside home – all in a matter of just days.

This does not sound like a place anyone would be particularly drawn to.

But this senseless violence, and much more, all took place over a fortnight in Port Elizabeth – a city whose residents would like to believe it enjoys a reputation of being a lot safer than other larger centres in the country.

“We are witnessing more and more brutalities against each other.”

These were the words of Graça Machel, speaking at Rhodes University last week, and with her being the widow of the revered father of what is these days an oft beleaguered nation, we should take heed.

Machel did not mince her words when it came to pointing out we are under siege when it comes to both violence and corruption – and that a breakdown of family structures and values and an absence of moral leadership are the chief culprits. She is right on the button. It is not just crime on the streets. A people can also be brutalised by a government – one which they elected.

We have become anaesthetised to so much that afflicts our society to the extent that abhorrent acts – whether it be government graft or crimes of unimaginable cruelty – cease to elicit the outrage they deserve and which should be acted upon.

Values need to be reexamined. We need to look at what is happening in our homes, neighbourhoods and communities. Are alienation, lack of compassion and indifference allowing seeds of malevolence and vice to fester?

And we only have ourselves to blame if we do not demand of the leaders we elected, whether it be at local council level or those in higher office, to do what is expected – provide clean governance and take on those societal ills which plague us.