I founded Jeppe Park Primary School in 2016, in the hope of a better education for children in the suburb. I saw its windows smashed and the children terrorised by the violence.This is our story of loss, survival and the bitter relationship between violence and forgiveness that keeps our country hanging together by bare and miraculous threads.It all began at dusk on Sunday evening, September 1.
Later, when we started piecing the stories together — rumours that the school was owned by a foreign principal, by Nigerians, by Maboneng — we realised just how close the school had come having more than its windows broken. Schools up the road were not so lucky and were burned to the ground.Only later did we see the flyer stamped with the fateful date of September 2 2019, which was distributed ahead of the violence.
So many factors matched up with one fact: how quickly frustration and desperation can make a city go up in flames.As this was happening, leaders in this country could not have spoken more clearly: the mayor, normally so full of bravado; absent. The president; absent. Police Minister Bheki Cele, after one half-hearted address to stop the violence cancelled his main address and never pitched up again. Former Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi was jeered off the stage.
They were worried about the school being closed and were adamant that the children shouldn’t stay at home any longer than they already had. They said it was urgent and important to open the school because it was a beacon of hope for the children of the area. They wanted children to be protected from the social ills around them and spend their days building their future. The parents, izinduna and teachers all agreed: the children should go back to school. We made some concessions.
But mostly, the chaotic violence of years prior has now hardened into its own language — one of xenophobia being the reason for joblessness, which can be fixed by a violent clearing of house.
I loathe the whole idea of empowering criminals. Why negotiate with them as if the country is held at ransom.
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Source: SABC News Online - 🏆 32. / 51 Read more »