Musings of a Mad Sub – I am tired of being ‘politically correct’.

I will no longer refer to violent criminals as ‘criminals’.

I will, from now on, refer to them as terrorists.

I have several reasons for this, so take your pick.

First off, I am sick and tired of being politically correct. Political correctness, to me, is often a cover-up for the truth. Without the hard, brutal truth being spoken, how can things be fixed?

Secondly, what these criminals are doing is robbing us, the people, of our right to live without fear.

The last time I checked, this was a constitutional right – to live without fear.

Further to this, violent criminals do not seemed concerned with anything, other than themselves.

But let us examine this situation a little more closely.

What is the primary, operational purpose of a terrorist? Simple – to sow terror among the populace.

The reasons for this are numerous, but one must always watch that today’s terrorist does not end up tomorrow’s freedom fighter.

In the case of South Africa’s violent crime terrorists, they are not perpetrating their crimes to free an oppressed people. No, indeed, they are performing their heinous actions to simply enrich themselves.

I will not delve into the psyche of these terrorists. I am not a psychologist.

But what concerns me is how many of these violent crimes seem to reflect a degree of military training, or military precision. The other defining characteristic is the sheer callousness of the crimes.

Fathers killed in front of their children, women gang-raped, boiling water poured over victims, hot irons used to torture victims, the list goes on.

I am sick of sugar-coating this – we have a problem in South Africa.

To be quite honest, I don’t really care what the reasons for this are. I want to see solutions.

To quite a large degree, I feel sorry for our police officers. Many of the officers suffer, I think, from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Given that many of the sights they see would rival battlefields, it is nothing short of miraculous that our officers are even capable of functioning normally.

Yes there is corruption and some of the officers are useless. But guess what people? This is not unique to the police force. Look around you in your company, I am sure you can identify some less-than-productive people.

Our police officers are facing a mounting insurgency from criminals, people who don’t think twice of shooting an officer. Just this week, an off-duty officer in Tembisa was shot in the head. Sadly, he did not survive.

If this is the calibre thug (terrorist) our police officers must face, perhaps the time has come to fight fire with fire.

The SAPS has the Task Force, highly trained individuals who can deal with a multitude of different scenarios.

Let them loose on these terrorists. Double-tap and move on.

South Africa must deal with this situation quickly and harshly; the rule of law must be stamped upon the heads of those who feel superior to the law. This stamp should be applied from the barrel of a rifle.

This may sound cold-blooded. Some may say I am no better than those committing these crimes. There are also many pointless platitudes stating ‘the sign of a civilised country is how well (nicely) it deals with criminals’. Blegh.

We are not facing petty thieves. We are not facing thugs who are just bullies.

We are facing well-armed, trained groups, who have (somehow) gained access to automatic rifles.

But where does the root of this problem begin?

I feel it goes all the way to the top. If the president himself cannot follow the laws of South Africa, how on Earth can he expect us normal people to? Now factor in that some people feel no law applies to them (criminals).

Government must be cleaned up. A case in point is the recent water shortage.

This is nothing short of shocking, and the nonsense surrounding the excuses was deplorable.

Everyone blamed everyone, no one took responsibility.

Perhaps the EMM should focus on service delivery where it matters most (water and electricity) and stop throwing council-funded parties with international DJ’s. Yes, I am speaking about the up-coming spring festival event hosted by the EMM.

@TheMadSub