Our country is burning! Literally burning to the ground. People are leaving our country because we are making it uninhabitable. We’re making it unattractive for investors and a nightmare for business owners, the very same business owners who are creating employment. Yet we make it difficult for them to progress and create more employment.
Crime is everywhere all over the world but I think everyone can agree with me when I say it’s not normal to be hearing gunshots on a daily basis. This is what is happening currently in my community every night there are gunshots sometimes even during the day. It is scary because sometimes you wonder what if you are at the wrong place at the wrong time. I have heard of such events where an innocent by stander gets shot and doesn’t live to tell the tale.
In every location in South Africa we have Pakistanis who have big successful shops, they sell almost everything from the commodities such as bread and butter to luxuries such as chocolates and cold drinks. They seem to be the first targets whenever there are lootings. #fees must fall, their shops were looted, people want housing, the Pakistani shops must be looted. It’s very sad and shocking to see the lengths that people would go to. Now recently it’s the Zuma riots and once again the Pakistanis are the first targets. I cannot go to the shops and buy bread because our shops are closed people are scared to open because they think their shops might be looted or they fear for their life.
To be clear Zuma is not the first person to go to prison and there are people who have served sentences that would make his 15 months sentencing seem like a walk in the park. Why must his arrest disrupt the whole country is my question? Why must people die for him? Why must businesses suffer because of him? I want to know what he has to say about this and why he cannot stop it. Would it be so hard to get cameras in his face and he can make a statement to his supporters to stop this madness because this is madness!
As it is, a lot of us are unemployed and people see it fit and right to create further unemployment by looting shops and malls and then burning everything down. What is going to happen to all the people that worked in those malls that are now burnt down or not safe to open?
What does Zuma have to say about all of this? Is this even still about Zuma? I think not. In my personal opinion I think yes this initially started with Zuma in mind but then a lot of people who probably don’t even care if he is released or not joined in. I think this is because people are hungry and angry, people are unemployed and bored and this current state of life where we living with the Covid-19 pandemic is not making things easier for anyone. Many people have lost their jobs and they probably don’t think it is very fair that others are still waking up every morning to go to work. So to hell with the country! Let it all burn down to the ground. It is spiraling out of control, our country is out of control and people are out of control! The videos that are going viral on social networks of the looting and the shooting and the dead people are not pretty to look at. How many people must die? Why must people die?
Our main local mall was set on fire a neighbor told me and all I could think of was that it was under renovations. I wanted to see how the renovations would turn out. Our mall is closed now and I don’t know when it will open. All of those contract workers working in this temporary job of renovating the mall. They were putting food on the table what now? Why does everything good have to be taken away? Why should our community not progress? Why is it that the very community members are capable of destroying our community? Zuma is in prison and the significant detail that should register in people’s brains is that… Even if he was not in prison he would not be fighting for our communities to get any better! Now why is it that we are vandalizing them in his name?
We have a MacDonald’s now in my community or maybe the better word would be “had” – we had a Macdonald’s and it has not been a minute since it finally opened but already it fell victim to the looting and vandalism. It seems those of us who were still going to dine there and take pleasure of this accomplishment will have to wait until the building is fixed and recovers from the vandalism. The newly employed workers eager to start work and earn a living will have to wait also and stay at home.
The thing about being a business owner in South Africa nowadays is that you do not have any guarantees. Your business can be looted or vandalized at any given time for whatever trending reason at the time. It has become a joke with the ‘I am leaving South Africa comments and jokes’ but honestly I think a lot of us would leave South Africa if we could. With everything that is happening I am truly ashamed to be a South African. I do not want to raise my children in such a country where they would think it is okay to pick up a match stick and burn anything for any ridiculous reason.
To all the looters in the Zuma riots causing chaos and havoc in his name, I just want to know if they in their right minds think that Zuma would actually return the favor if the tables were turned?
