When morality is no more

When a crime is committed, it goes without saying that morality goes out of the window.

The ordinary, law-abiding citizen questions the morality of perpetrators.

We wonder, how and where they were raised. We question how they deviate from the humanity we are born and raised with.

The underbelly of the zama zama wars has erupted, with scores of illegal miners trapped underground as operation Vala Umgodi intensifies. Witnesses claim there are about 4 000 illegal miners.

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Some gravely ill, others who have already died and others still holding on for dear life. A grim picture has been painted, but we remember that these are mostly people who have consented to a life of crime.

The expectation now is that law enforcers are meant to risk their lives and go into unsafe spaces to bring them to the surface.

Furthermore, it is not just in the world of zama zamas where this conflict arises. Another example shows its face in the Western Cape, where gang violence has communities in a chokehold.

Gangsters, sometimes from behind prison bars, instruct young men to kill each other, thus creating a disturbance of normal life for those that live with them. Living in those neighbourhoods becomes a daily mission to survive.

The expectation is that when it gets too violent and treacherous, South African Police Service members should swoop in and restore order.

They ought to be referees to those who live and die by the swords they unashamedly brandish. Law and order must prevail in South Africa, when the two worlds collide.

What is the remedy? How do we implore law-abiding citizens to go knee-deep and resolve conflicts of those who do not appreciate that living with others means respecting the rule of law? We know the criminals within our communities.

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We also know the police who harbour these criminals and turn a blind eye. We know the political figures whose career ambitions are bankrolled by this blood money.

The point is, we know, yet, we turn and look away. We remain silent and allow for the safety and pleasure of our community to be taken away from us – daily.

We allow ourselves to bear witness to mortuary vans becoming an ever-constant sight for us to see – that the children we raise to become so desensitised to the bloodshed and mayhem, because this is normal, yet we expect people with clear morals to risk their lives to rectify the situation. To what end?