Two Bits – 29 January 2016

The Mayor’s march against racism was a great idea. Wonderful statement that needs to be made, over and over. However, blocking the traffic for over an hour, bringing Ballito to a standstill at midday on a busy Friday, was not a great idea.
I have no objection to choosing Ballito as the venue for a march against racism. Some were asking if the Mayor was trying to make a point that Ballito is home to racists. The Mayor is an honourable man, so that can’t be it. However, while there’s no point denying there is latent racism everywhere, that doesn’t mean all Ballito residents are racist. The majority, in my experience, are anti-racist and want this country to be good for all of us.
It has been suggested that by bussing in a crowd of ANC supporters from Stanger that the Mayor was trying to be deliberately provocative. However, I am sure the Mayor is an honourable man, and did not want to provoke confrontation.
The march was supposed to end at the Sangweni tourism centre. The Mayor brought the march to a halt in the very middle of the town’s busiest four-way intersection. There’s no way the cops were going to tell him to move on! Traffic was jammed for an hour, tailing right back to the N2 and way back on the M4. It was chaos and a lot of people were very frustrated. I am sure that the Mayor is an honourable man, but he scored no points for abusing his power.
The crowd set on a driver who they claimed had hurled the K-word at them. I have a very low opinion of the mentality of mobs, from personal experience, and in this case I do not believe it, for the simple reason that the accused man is in an inter-racial marriage! Would you think a man who has a wife and children of colour goes around making racial slurs?
It was particularly unfortunate that the Mayor chose to have his march on a Friday, when the responsible members of the community are working. Was it a march only for the unemployed and those who wanted a day off?
Many members of the Ballito community would have wanted to take part in a march against racism, so a Saturday or Sunday would have been far better. The Mayor would then have had the community supporting him, not irritated.
I am sure the Mayor is an honourable man, but he should know that there’s always trouble around if you go out looking for it. Nelson Mandela taught us that it is far better to seek the good in people.
He avoided holding on to hate and vengeance, so that the bloodshed the society feared and is widespread in the rest of Africa, never came to South Africa.
As we start off this new year, and especially in a year of local government elections, perhaps we should remind ourselves to have respect for different viewpoints and remember to care for each other, regardless of race, colour or creed.
We (including our public representatives) should reflect on the life of Nelson Mandela and his personal sacrifice, pragmatism and forgiveness. We should remind ourselves that we can learn – and have learnt – those lessons.
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