Government is perpetuating the struggle

One would think that a much celebrated freedom attained through a political struggle would embrace struggles of ordinary people and pursue liberation at all levels.

But the response to people’s struggles makes me question if our current government was Snowball or Napoleon in the liberation struggle.

Did they really fight for equality, or were they just waiting upon those who died before standing on their backs to claim victory of a struggle they never fought for?

Surely if the government was involved in the struggle, it would work hard to fight economic, education and societal struggles? However, ours has proven to do otherwise and finds itself detached from political struggles.

Failure of government to understand its role in the case of Kanya Cekeshe demonstrates its separation from genuine political struggles.

A student political activist prosecuted by the government of the liberation movement is history repeating itself and leaves many like myself questioning the political and judicial ideals behind its governance.

Which political ideals actually guide our government? The one which distinguishes a political activist as a criminal and a danger to society? Well, given his five-year sentence, my question has been answered.

With that in mind, it would be safe to say the apartheid government was right for the prosecution and killing of many political activists for they had broken the law which recognised them as danger to society.

The overall sense of this remark enforces that the apartheid government never committed any unjust acts. If they did, then so is our current government.

If there was no separation or detachment between government and society then there would be no need for a 1 000-plus page document from the minister of justice convincing them that Cekeshe is no criminal but a political activist.

Surely, images of them burning apartheid government police vans would have sprung to mind on hearing Cekeshe’s case.

But maybe we are led by people that never felt the cement yard of Robben Island prison and maybe that’s why they won’t fight so hard against injustices posed by the justice system upon those fighting for better lives.

The similarities between today’s struggles and yesterday’s are quite apparent.

The lack of progress in this country is indisputable. The fact that I’m still fighting the struggle of poverty that my great-grandfather did, is disturbing. The fact that Steve Biko was killed by the law and Cekeshe’s life is slowly being drained by the law portrays the lack of transformation in our judicial system.

In both the cases of Cekeshe and Biko, the law was used to “civilise’’ the individuals. In the cases of both Cekeshe and Biko, the law was foreign to their struggles and chose to prosecute them for fighting against suppressing realities.

Cekeshe was fighting for better education and burnt a police van in the process? Well, did students not burn apartheid government’s police vans in the ’70s and ’80s in the liberation fight? Is it not appalling how criminals re-offend just to be prosecuted and imprisoned, but activists have to die in jail?

Sinesipho Schrieber.

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