On the eve of Women’s Month, South Africa woke up to the horror of the gang rape of eight women at a mine dump in Krugersdorp, west of Joburg.
Gender-based violence, illegal immigration, illegal mining, lack of police visibility and brazen criminality intersected in a country where criminals enjoy impunity.
Just this week, four people died in Thembisa, Ekurhuleni, during service delivery protests, and millions worth of damage was done to the infrastructure.
A week before the world commemorated International Mandela Day, 16 people were massacred at a tavern in Orlando East, Soweto.
Even last year, July 18 was marked by bloodshed. A total of 354 people are reported to have died in riots in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng that cost the country R50-billion in damages, 150 000 lost jobs, while many others people sustained injuries.
This Youth Month, 21 teenagers, some as young as 13, died at a tavern in Eastern Cape during a party to mark the end of the winter school term.
The unemployment rate in South Africa is 34.5% – and it is the highest among the young people with 42.1% of those in the ages of 25 to 34 being unemployed.
South Africa has been experiencing crippling power blackouts with electricity rationing leaving some businesses idle or closed for most of their productive hours.
Basic food prices are rising, with many families battling to put food on the table. Last month, interest rates rose by a dizzying 75 basis points.
Petrol is the new gold. Railway infrastructure is in shambles with those still lucky enough to still have jobs with the devastation caused by Covid-19, spending more money commuting than on essentials.
Criminals are brazen as the Benoni robbery in Ekurhuleni demonstrated. Ours is a country in which you can get caught in the crossfire of a 15-strong gang armed with military-grade guns at a mall. Our prisons are full, with some operating at 248% capacity, while even more dangerous criminals roam our streets freely.
In the period between April 1 last year and March this year, 90 037 girls aged 10 to 19 gave birth in hospitals all over South Africa. Children as young as 12 are mothers.
Communities are helpless, with drug lords and dealers terrorising them, turning townships into drug zones.
Amid these crises that made world headlines, former president and ANC elder Thabo Mbeki fears that, with the high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment, South Africa will one day have its own version of the Arab Spring!
One day? Sir, we are past that day. What do you call the anarchy that is South Africa? How many people must die in violent protests and lawlessness, for you to realise we are past your fears? Are 354 lives in a few days not enough?
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