What about the poor among us
Although the matter was later reported at the Vosloorus SAPS, the culprits are still at large and have not been arrested.
The national outcry by the country’s academic fraternity and high-profile politicians at the attempted murder of Professor Sakhele Buhlungu, the vice-chancellor of the University of Fort Hare, and the subsequent killing of his bodyguard Mboneli Veselea is understandable.
After all, ordinary citizens are constantly under siege by marauding criminals in the townships.
As unacceptable as they are, the attacks on the honourable professor and the killing of his bodyguard seem to send a disheartening message to the ordinary and non-academic masses. It is reminiscent of famed British author George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which explores the inequality of the citizens.
The general feeling on the streets of the country’s townships, including around Kathorus, is hopelessness and helplessness. People are forced to cower under the darkness during load-shedding each night while criminals’ reign of terror continues.
Many of these so-called lowly subjects believe, rightfully so, that as soon as something horrible happens to the elite and preferred citizens then law enforcement is immediately called upon to act swiftly and harshly against the perpetrators of crime.
Sadly, as it has always been proved in the past, those who are often hunted down by the law for acts of violence are often the country’s ‘lowly’ citizens who are often sourced and solicited by the ‘high-class’ society with deep pockets.
To protect him from any further attacks on his life, Buhlungu is reported to have been moved to a safe location while the police have launched a hunt for the attackers.
In another seemingly deliberately orchestrated attack on two other top academics that were also in the employ of the same university of Fort Hare, the bodies of Professor Judith Masters and her partner Fabien Genin were found by their domestic worker at their Eastern Cape home on January 8.
They were discovered with their hands and feet tied.
So tragic, so sad.
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Hundreds, if not thousands, of terrified law-abiding residents around the townships and informal settlements of Kathorus such as Katlehong, Vosloorus and Thokoza are living in utter fear as load-shedding continues.
It leaves many exposed to crime.
This writer had his property raided by unknown criminals who scaled the perimeter walls between homes around his homestead and made off with a bicycle and a stepladder in the early hours of January 3. Although the matter was later reported at the Vosloorus SAPS, the culprits are still at large and have not been arrested.
Scores of other local residents in the neighbourhood have expressed their concerns about criminals who stalk homes under the blanket of darkness. Many of these home raids by criminals often take place in the early hours of the night between 01:00 and 03:00.
Prompt action is required from people such as the former Mayor of Ekurhuleni Mondli Gungubele, who is in the office of Presidency, and Minister of Police Bheki Cele.
Without a doubt, a concerted effort to address the social ills of our times would also dispel George Orwell’s Animal Farm theory that some lives are more important than others.
It is simply not true that crime and violence in some parts of the land are less important than crimes committed in other parts of our troubled land.
