Why is society crumbling?
Criminality has reached savage proportions and without an end to corruption, a regular supply of water and electricity, job creation is impossible and social progress unlikely.
Last week a teen gets off the MyCiti in Salt River and gets dragged behind the bus-shelter. A gun is pushed into her neck and she is mugged. In Elsie’s River a delinquent teen leaves her 2yr old inside a drug den where the child is raped and abused. Decent citizens who pay tax must consider why this chaos is unfolding in our nation.
Two weeks ago my car had a mechanical failure about 500 meters from my home. Since it was evening, I decided to collect the car the next morning and tow it to the mechanic who had already closed for that day. The next morning, the car window was smashed with such might that the glass spread across the entire car. The thief’s even tried to steal engine parts.
Petty crime is often not reported as citizens have become desensitized to the chaos and grasp that law enforcement is overcome with murder and assault cases. As a result, criminals freely roam our streets as society is not united against crime and corruption.
We are divided along fabricated racial, religious, cultural and class lines etc. which makes it easier for criminals to operate. Example, when a Black or Brown child is raped in Gugulethu or Lentegeur does this crime impact on Constantia or Durbanville? Do Church leaders from Wynberg or Claremont etc. visit families affected by crime in townships? Thus when homes are robbed in Constantia or Newlands are the residents of Grassy Park sympathetic?
Ironically criminals understand this communal discord, so they harass communities, taking turns, moving around, conscious that our individual defenses against crime is not integrated.
Maybe it is wrong to suggest that rich people do not care what happens inside townships. It is equally unfair to suggest that township folk do not care when rich homes are robbed.
One day when Capetonians become a collective like New Yorkers or Londoners and work together regardless of class, race and culture then we can attain social progress. We will then realize that politicians, religious leaders and other who seek to exploit us, do so, because we allow them.
In the words of Albert Einstein “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress