Haunted by inequality

WHAT goes on in the minds of men who force a defenceless victim into a coffin while he screams for mercy? Men who film their cowardly sadism and post it on YouTube for a laugh? Men who believe the society they live in will allow them to get away with this orgy of cruelty against a fellow human being?

Once again South Africa is reeling in the wake of a horrendous racist incident. It pains us. We introspect. We scold. We rage. And yet these attacks happen again and again.

Why is the road towards equality and respect for others so fraught? Why are a significant number of our fellow South Africans deaf to pleas for reconciliation?

The year started on an ignominious note with estate agent Penny Sparrow’s fatuous post labelling black beachgoers “monkeys”.

In another racist attack in June, two men assaulted a pump attendant in Tzaneen when he told them that the petrol station had run out of unleaded petrol.

These are just two of the revolting incidents to have come to light this year. Even more distressing is that it emerged this week that only after the footage of his attack appeared on YouTube did Victor Rethabile Mlotshwa feel he had enough ammunition to pursue charges of assault. Until then he was convinced the justice system would not believe him. Why does our justice system fail the poor and vulnerable so profoundly?

The continued inequality that haunts our country would appear to be at the core of this injustice. Those who wielded the sjambok 22 years ago continue to do so today. They still regard forcing people into coffins as akin to enforcing the law.

That is why as a nation we need to work with an even greater sense of urgency towards realising the more equitable society of our dreams.