Recently, I applied and received classified documents from the National Archives and the police relating to my incarceration on Robben Island, banning orders and other information held by the security apparatus of the white minority regime.
I was taken aback by the meticulous details they had on me, including the fact that their so-called minister of justice had to sign off on a mere R150 that was to be given to me on my release from prison and banishment to Mawhelereng township in Mokopane. A minister having to approve the payment of a meagre R150.
No wonder they were able to put the black majority under their oppressive boot for so long.
Compare this with the laxity prevailing in our country presently where anybody can do as they please. It appears we have moved from a cruel and brutal law enforcement regime to a ridiculous and bumbling laissez-faire situation that threatens the very existence of our republic. The country is lurching from one crisis to the other on many fronts.
As a result, it is difficult to shake off the impression that we are governing by crisis. We have known for more than 20 years that an electricity generation problem was brewing at Eskom but did little about it. The shortage has gradually deteriorated to the point of a crisis and we had to scramble and declare a state of disaster.
Crime is simply out of control, to the extent that we are told a lot of skilled people of all races are leaving the country in droves. They are worried about their safety and the future of their children in a country in which criminality is flourishing. We train people at great expense and then lose them like this.
Recently, there has been frequent mass shootings with high calibre guns in Gqeberha, and other parts of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The shootings are seemingly gratuitous and mindless.
Considering that the first duty of the state is to protect its citizens, the lack of urgency in tackling this issue is baffling. It is a matter which in many countries would have occasioned the head of state to address the nation. Deaths from shootings in South Africa surpass those of countries at war, such as Ukraine.
This crazy situation is only matched by the madness we see in the US. Are we witnessing morbid US copycat acts? Are there dark forces trying to destabilise the country? Does the state know what this is about?
There is general consensus that there are too many illegal guns in South Africa. The government knows this. Why is there no drastic and urgent action taken to tackle this problem? Why can’t we use our intelligence structures, the police and army to comprehensively deal with the problem? If need be, why not get parliament to enact enabling legislation to facilitate the elimination of illegal guns in our country?
Are we perhaps waiting for the criminals to massacre hundreds at a big event and then declare a state of disaster? Why can’t we just attend effectively to issues of governing without waiting for crises to develop?
Criminality will destroy the hospitality industry, construction, transport, etc. Note the murder of Kiernan AKA Forbes at a Durban restaurant, the shootings at taverns, and the killing of a German tourist in Mpumalanga and the scourge of the construction mafia.
We are the laughing stock of our neighbours and the world. This must stop right now before our country descends into a failed state.
- Mangena, a black consciousness exponent, is a former minister of science and technology and erstwhile Azapo president
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here
