Recently the City of Cape Town sent out an e-mail to encourage support for Bafana who played the Central African Republic {CAR} at the Cape Town Stadium on 23 March 2013. The morning after Bafana won the qualifier, the world awoke to the news that the CAR was in the midst of a violent revolution and that South African soldiers were defending the capital city of Bangui.
Days later, 13 South Africans lay dead; several wounded and all of a sudden, political parties demand the reasons for the CAR mission. As usual political opportunism and point scoring takes centre stage. Although SA troops have been active in the CAR for months, some politicians have now woken up.
For some vile reason, whenever South Africans die violently, politicians are excited to be photo’d with the family. Few politicians make any contribution to the family’s needs and generally use the tragedy to elevate their own position. We see this regularly with bus accidents and gang violence.
Instead of obsequious pretence, I suggest parliamentarians discuss the financial and social impact that the millions of economic migrants, refugees and political asylum seekers have on local municipal services like healthcare, inadequate water, housing and electricity supplies.
While I remain an ardent supporter of constitutional democracy, I consider that at this point in history; some African populations are genuinely unable to govern their own states. I advocate that South Africa should, out of necessity, establish a more imperial role over these failed states. If we do not do this, the coup d’état, civil unrests and violent revolutions will continue. While the mineral wealth of these African states is siphoned off by unscrupulous Western and Chinese predators, the jobless, war ravaged people migrate south and become an unsustainable long term liability to South Africa. Local tax and ratepayers cannot be burdened whenever an African dictator assumes power. .
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress