READER REFLECTION MOURNING THE LOSS OF PEACE IN OUR COUNTRY, AS WE ALL EXPERIENCE THE DEVASTATION OF LAWLESSNESS
I am writing this on International Peace Day. I am a peacemaker who daily works as a mediator. I have trained many of our beautiful people in peacemaking and mediation.
But tonight, I am sad as my beloved country is not at peace. The government that is supposed to keep us safe is not doing that. They are fighting among themselves for positions and money.
Our people are murdered daily. Our children are killed in gangster gunfights. Our mothers and daughters are raped and molested. Our people are hungry and angry. We do not have trains. Our buses are not safe. We are grateful when we are robbed and we live to tell the story.
We must be street wise, we say. How sad is it that we cannot walk around feeling safe?
My grandson of four who lives in Cape Town has experienced the car being stolen from outside their house, a drug murder across the street, a burglar grabbing a laptop and phone at their home and two people pulled AK47s on them on the N2 at 10am on a Monday. He says when he is big and strong, he is going to become a ninja so that he can protect his parents.
How sad is that?
My oldest son and his family and my other two grandsons live and work overseas because they cannot find jobs as highly qualified people in South Africa and because it is not safe. The have been there for 14 years. Despite what is going on in our country they decided to move back and work online as they want to be with the rest of the family.
We were looking forward to being together as a family but recently they made the decision to stay where they are.
Who can work online if there is no electricity? Who can come back if their children are not safe?
My son says to me, we so want to be with you, but I cannot bring my children to a country where the ANC is in power. Depending on what happens in the next election, they might reconsider.
What am I to do? My heart is broken. I am a good citizen. I pay my taxes. I help people, but I cannot hold my grandchildren in my arms. I am resilient but I am running out of time. Where is the peace and prosperity?
Tonight on International Peace Day, I cry for myself and my family; for the women who have to feed children when they have no electricity; for the men who want to provide but have no jobs; for the people who have been reduced to crime; for the ANC, which has destroyed our beautiful country and deserted its people; and for our president, of whom I said, at last we have a statesman that we can be proud of. Where are you in all of this? I cry for my beloved country.