Western Cape is part of a democratic South Africa

THE RECENT plethora of racial attacks in the Western Cape as reported in your paper on January 17 is perhaps indicative of the “enclave” type of mentality that is the order of the day in what appears to be one of the most racially divided provinces in our country.

Could it be that certain segments of the electorate are influenced by our politicians who are supposed to lead by example, given the very public profile of the office that they hold?

When plans for the National Traffic Police were first mooted, thentransport MEC Robin Carlisle, when interviewed on TV, stated that he would “not allow these police to cross the borders of the Western Cape”.

This province is not a federal state situated on the periphery of our country. As a province, it is part of democratic South Africa and should align itself with the provisions and values of our constitution.

The DA was also forced to launch an investigation after one of its councillors in Mossel Bay allegedly stated that she would “bring in a bus full of k*****s “to disrupt a community meeting about land development.

Recently, Premier Helen Zille refused to withdraw a remark when she claimed that the ANC’s provincial leader, Marius Fransman, had deliberately distorted her words in the legislature. She initially ignored her own Speaker’s instruction to withdraw the remark but then did so the following day before walking out of the House while proceedings were in progress.

Previously, while I was observing proceedings on September 12, 2013, Zille walked out of the House while then-MPL, Lynne Brown, was delivering her address in a special debate that the ANC had requested on the “undermining of women in the West- ern Cape”. Several commentators on social media sites have questioned whether our province is not perhaps seen by some as the “last bastion of white supremacy”, given the high incidence of racial attacks here over a considerable period of time.

I trust that our judiciary will deal definitively with this scourge to serve as a warning to others that racial stereotypes have no future in the simmering provincial cauldron which some of us call home.