It was in the early nineties that I came back to Dutywa, after a stint at the then University of Transkei in Mthatha.
This was a time of great promise and optimism.In actual fact it was the year of our glorious first democratic election, 1994. My own optimism was about the endless possibilities for development, personally, communally and nationally, which were just opening up.
It seemed only the imagination could limit us.
One of the things which quickly stood out for me, was how the town seemed to have seen a rise in the number of young men coming from the cities, particularly Johannesburg.
These “cool” guys ran workshops where cars were fixed; they drove their own cars! Some were my age, some younger, and they seemed to have made it already. I was nowhere nearly as progressive! However, I would soon learn that these guys made a living by selling “hot” cars.
When I inquired about this, the response was brazen and unapologetic, “Sibela abelungu thina mfethu, hayi umntu omnyama,” meaning, “We steal from white people my brother, not blacks”.
Sure enough, it would not take too long before they stole my father’s car.
The myth quickly evaporated. Thieves do not care about skin colour, they will steal from you, finish and klaar.
I was reminded of this when I heard about the recent horrific crime statistics.
We known, we have intolerable crime levels. We are frustrated and sometimes just numb to the ongoing bloodletting throughout the country.
We hurt when racist groups like Afriforum try to peddle myths of the selective effects of crime in our overwhelmed nation, as if crime cares about skin colour.
We equally despair when the issue of skin colour is used by other racists like the EFF to drum up political support.
But to hear that 57 people are murdered each day in South Africa, often by people they know is mind-boggling.
To learn that in townships like Nyanga, Cape Town, the murder capital of South Africa, murder is committed in broad daylight by murderers who have no fear of law enforcement, is truly soul sapping.
Police Minister Bheki Cele said, “On average, 57 people are murdered a day, which brings us close to a war zone … yet we are not at war”.
As if to bring this picture into clear focus, a school teacher, Gadimang Daniel Mokolobate, may his soul rest in peace, was fatally stabbed in class by a learner in Zeerust Northwest recently.
This incident comes on the back of many murders committee by learners against other learners all over the country.
We are truly under siege. Who sends a child to school to come back in a coffin? What teacher goes to school fearing for his or her life?
Yet this is the life we have come to live, in a country we call free.
Does freedom mean freedom to rob, maim and murder each other?
In the same manner we put the blame for the past atrocities of apartheid on the heads of the apartheid administration of the NP, we must put the blame for the scourge of crime, murder and mayhem on the heads of the ANC administration.
However, this does not stop the intolerable bloodletting which has become part of our society and identity.
In our failure to define who we are, and what we stand for, we have drifted into a situation where our identity is defined by our circumstances.
We are known to be a crime ridden and murderous society. We also know this.
Those of us who try to remove themselves conceptually from the mayhem, by attaching crime to skin colour, class or gender are deluding themselves.
Crime has become part of the South African identity.
However, not all is lost. It is possible to recreate our identity in a manner which recognises our common aspirations.
It is possible to recognise all human beings as such and as deserving of dignity. It is possible to recognise that such dignity requires a certain culture and atmosphere in order to thrive.
It is possible to commit to making that culture and atmosphere possible through sheer will, consistent hard-work and a clear understanding of what we want to achieve as a nation.
The urgent call of our times is to find and appoint leaders who commit to this and only this vision and nothing else, to take us forward!..