OUR VIEW: Let’s allow justice to take its course
The past week has been marred by sporadic violence in the little town of Machadodorp in neighbouring Emakhazani Local Municipality.
There the community is up in arms in protest against suspects who were released on R500 bail after assaulting a fellow member of the community.
It is a sad situation because this has turned out to be a racial matter, which is not good for our country. It has become so ugly that the community has burned property and also gone to the extent of barricading the N4 with burning tyres and debris.
My concern is why should they barricade the N4 instead of confining their action within their community? Such actions not only affect them, but they also affect the economy.
As it is, traffic could not flow freely along that road and a truck had even been burned at that scene.
That road transports goods and commodities to and from the province. To make it worse, September is Tourism Month, in which we have to show that we are a tourism-friendly province and should not demonstrate this rampant aggressiveness.
It is not true that this protest action is linked to service delivery. It has turned out to be a personal matter between the warring parties. Let’s allow justice to take its course. Legally, they were arrested, charged and granted bail by a court of law.
As a community, we need to exercise tolerance among each other. What transpired there is of such a personal manner that now it is viewed as a racial issue.
These people had their differences in town and provoked each other, which led to the eventual assault. We’re not condoning violence, but they could have resolved their differences amicably rather than drawing in the whole town.
Before communities embark on protest action, they should be aware of the facts involved and analyse the situation before taking action that they will later regret.
As it is, arson has been committed and the perpetrators will eventually be apprehended. Will we see the community opposing that action, too?
Surely, sanity needs to prevail here, because such protest actions are most often hijacked and turned around to include matters that are far from the matter at hand.
Let tolerance and peace prevail within our communities for a better and more peaceful future.
