South Africa is a nation of shameless vandals

GRAPHIC illustrations about the wanton destruction of school property at Alex High and confirmation that the virtual destruction of Charlotte Maxeke Hospital was an act of arson reveal that we are a nation of vandals, destructive predators, who even desecrate tombstones.

The monumental destruction of the passenger rail system by miscreants graphically illustrates and confirms that we are a nation of shameless vandals.

Under the shadow of Covid-19, shameless criminals dismantled a fully functional rail system, affecting millions of commuters.

We vandalise anything from the new to the old, beautiful to the ugly, the public to the private, precious to the inexpensive. Vandalism is considered to be the result of wilful or thoughtless behaviour towards the environment, resulting in the destruction and damage of private and state property.

Last year, 54 schools were vandalised, and the repair bill came to R54 million. We will eventually inherit a generation of illiterate pupils who will have no role to play in a hi-tech society driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

South Africa is the 10th most violent and 19th unsafest country in the world, according to the latest Global Peace Index, compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace (EP). The index found that the national cost of violence in our rainbow and lawless nation is 19% of the country’s GDP, the 16th highest rate in the world. The group said that total violence containment in South Africa in the past year amounted to $66.7 billion (R989 billion) in the past year. Expressed in PPP (purchasing power parity) terms, this is about $124.3bn. Damage and illegal lines cost Eskom R71m in the 2019/20 financial year.

Cape Town has set aside R20m to fight vandalism. The Gauteng Department of Education has spent over R121m at 256 schools in the province since the start of the year as a result of theft and vandalism in schools. Cable theft costs the country R5 billion a year.

What we are witnessing is economic sabotage on a massive scale that will very soon render the nation a failed state.

Gender-based violence costs the country between R28.4bn and R42bn per year, or between 0.9% and 1.3% of GDP.

Vandalism is widespread across our beleaguered and crime-infested nation. The various aftermath effects incurred from this type of crime delve deeper than what is on the surface.

The effect that strikes the hardest is the cost of repair due to vandalism. The recklessness of the act imputes both intent and malice.

Unless our nation returns to civility and the due process of law, where people have respect for property, conduct grievances and protests with dignity, and display empathy for the downtrodden, we will be heading for tyranny as our hard-won democracy crashes into an inferno.