Violence never solves anything

AS I watched what was playing out on TV this weekend, with ANC and MK Party supporters said to be pointing spears at each other, I wondered how something that started with the liberation of black people from colonial dispossession and oppression could end up turned into black-on-black violence.

A grim reminder of black-onblack killings that preceded the unbanning of political parties in the early Nineties, and the arrival of democracy.

What I saw brought back memories of gruesome killings that took place early one morning, of commuters on a train to Pretoria who were attacked with pangas and guns by people wearing red head bands.

The injured were rushed to Natalspruit Hospital, after getting off at the nearest platform.

While we were still shocked, a mother and her daughter were brought in having suffered traumatic amputations of the right and left legs respectively, as they were seated on either side of the isle of the bus when a bomb was thrown between them.

So much suffering that left people dead or maimed is something that must never ever be repeated again.

The sad reality is that all of that did not stop the changes that were bound to happen. Do we ever learn from all these lessons? Violence never solves anything, except suffering for all parties involved.

Freedom from colonial bondage was achieved in the early Nineties; we cannot be flogging a dead horse now. What we should be doing is to strive for the second part of the Struggle – reconstruction and development of the country – and approach the upcoming elections with that objective in mind.