What on earth is going on in SA? Every day the news is littered with reports of criminal violence against law-abiding citizens – from petty thieves preying on people in the streets to heavily armed organised gangs killing security guards in cash heists. And the police never seem to respond in any significant way.
This lawlessness has now spread to the criminals wearing political party insignia. This week, people wearing T-shirts bearing the colours of the EFF broke into and ransacked stores owned by Vodacom in at least three shopping malls. Thugs calling themselves Black First Land First manhandle journalists and business people with impunity and no arrests have been made.
For the past few weeks, I have been a silent witness to similar acts of criminality by people wearing the insignia of the EFF who terrorise small businesses and factories in the industrial heartland of Johannesburg. I have received reports and evidence of similar acts of criminality in the factories of Cape Town and Durban. Taxpaying entrepreneurs cannot count on the police for assistance.
The thugs start by infiltrating the workforce, promising to get workers a better deal than their trade unions do. They purport to play the role of health and safety inspectors, railroading entrepreneurs for minor infringements on the shopfloor while complaining of poor working conditions.
Having turned employees against employers, they then demand payments from the entrepreneur. Any business owner who fails to pay the bribe has their plant ransacked or set on fire.
In the case of the terror being spread across factories in the Johannesburg area, desperate entrepreneurs have now turned to the media for help. The Gauteng government is fully aware of the intimidation, as are security agencies and the police. Some firms have obtained court interdicts against the EFF, yet the violence continues.
Some factories have been closed for weeks because the owners have not been able to operate in the face of the intimidation. Others have succumbed, and continue to pay what can only be termed "protection fees".
Compare this lawlessness with my experiences in Morocco and Israel recently. In Casablanca I saw 6,000 people march peacefully in protest through the central business district. Not a single window was broken and no rubbish bin was overturned.
Close to midnight in a street pub in Jerusalem, I saw two young men trying to solve a dispute with their fists. But within five minutes they were bundled into police vehicles and driven away.
Back home, we should be asking ourselves what kind of society we want for South Africa. Are we happy to allow thugs to abuse our constitutional democracy and parliament as they usurp power from the people?
Are we to be a society ruled by thugs who shake down entrepreneurs and citizens in broad daylight? How can we create jobs and persuade people to be active citizens who financially support their families?
Have we given up on the rule of law? Who in their right mind would invest in such an environment?..