Madam – An open letter to South Africa. I have been closely following the racial and political circus surrounding the double murder of my parents, Glen and Vida Rafferty, and quite honestly, I’m very disturbed by it.
My family and I have kept quiet for the most part, but there seems to be many people speaking for them without actually knowing them and I feel that has to be corrected.
Does anyone claiming to speak for them know their political views? I guarantee you they do not. Even their own children didn’t know them. They never imposed their views on anyone. A few things we knew about their views. Did they like the current state of government?
Of course not. Not even our own government likes the government. They felt it was too corrupt. Did they like the apartheid government? Absolutely not. They felt every person should be able to earn a proper living through hard work.That became their philosophy in life. You work hard, you better yourself and by extension, those around you, through example or through material gain.
They believed people were ultimately good. The only time they cared about skin colour was when their children broke out in Chicken Pox. The two things my father really hated was when his fences were broken by trees falling on them, or when my mother would purchase a new plant for her garden, only to realize he’d have to plant it himself.
My mother hated sitting idly by when there was something to be done. She ran the accounts of three businesses at one point, without any pay, just because she felt it needed to be done.
I am sick at how this tragedy has become a forum for people to vent their grievances at either the government, farmers or farm workers. It’s become a political and racial joke at this point. “Let’s blame the west! No, let’s blame the communists! It’s the colonists! No! It’s the government. It’s the ANC, DA, EFF, the police, farmers, farm workers, etc. You know what? Maybe Clicks is involved. Or Malema, Zille or even Mashaba.”
Right now my parents are laughing at all of you.
We’re so wrapped up in our blame game, we’ve forgotten that two good people are dead at the hands of criminals for absolutely no good reason. Their deaths won’t just affect the immediate family. It’s going to affect the people they touched in their lives. It’s going to affect their employees and their families. It’s going to affect the charities they donated to. It’s going to affect the next person they could have helped simply because “it’s the decent thing to do.”
My parents made sure my family would be provided for if anything ever happened to them. What’s going to happen to those that depended on them for a living or even their next meal? But I suppose the desperation of a few people does not matter as long as we all have someone to blame.
Stop for a second and maybe follow my parents example. They believed small acts of kindness would take you further than any sort of grand proclamations. It doesn’t take much to be a decent human being. Why is it so difficult for us?
A Proud Son of Glen and Vida Rafferty – Dale Rafferty
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