Charlie Greef (pseudonym) writes from the Boland:
South Africa’s political landscape appears to be a breeding ground for fighters. If I don’t agree with you, I chalk you up and slander your humanity so that the sea can’t wash you away.
Forgotten is the era when it was possible to differ from each other with respect. When warring parties could pick each other over the coals without committing a breach of character. Where debate was still civilized and the debaters were passionate about a safe and democratic South Africa.
Elon Musk recently hinted that the much-discussed war song that was sung during the EFF’s rally in Johannesburg leaves him hot under the collar. The answer he gets back is that he is a mad man.
JP Smith, Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety, does his work amid burning buses and rioting strikers, only to hear how it is crudely suggested to him that he should get psychological help.
André de Ruyter gets a top job at a leading university in America while he is being spat at from his own soil with the fire of white privilege.
Cilliers Brink and his team fight the Tshwane fires with integrity. They fight fire with fire. They stand for a better future for all the people of the metropolis. But they too are thanked with stench.
Fighters are not problem solvers. They are arsonists. They are quick to declare war and drop the proverbial petrol bomb. They don’t know, or they have forgotten: even a war has rules. Read the manual! Study the law!
You may not poison your enemy. Not to mention the Higher Law. “The tongue is also a fire. It is full of things that can spoil your relationship with God. It can make your whole life go up in flames, because the devil lights it.” – James 3:6
