Civil society needs to push back

Whether it is only a perception, there’s no denying that Zululand finds itself firmly in the grip of a serious infection of mayhem and madness.

It may well be no worse than years past, but we seem to be a society at war with itself.

Instead of solving problems in a mature and civil fashion, violence and murder are far too often the means of addressing disputes and grumpiness.

Using just one of our editions, Thursday’s Weekender newspaper, as an example, the following presents itself:

• A corporate executive is killed in his driveway, riddled with bullets fired by hit men wielding semi-automatic firearms. While investigations are still to determine the motive, the hit resembles that of a similar incident some years ago in which a senior manager was murdered by men hired by a disgruntled employee facing a disciplinary hearing.

• While education authorities attempt to bring order and discipline to schools, pupils go on the rampage at one school because they accuse the principal of being too strict and blame a ‘system’ for their poor report cards.

Fraud is investigated at another school, while at a third pupils object to disciplinary measures taken to curb absenteeism. There is also a call for ‘sex pest’ teachers to be investigated.

• A wage strike at the University of Zululand, which should be resolved in a peaceful manner, ends with strikes and violent protest action, shutting down the campus to the detriment of students who should be preparing for their final exams.

• Five men are in court, accused of brutally murdering a defenceless family, four others callously killed a taxi owner and a local cop is convicted of fatally shooting a colleague and an eyewitness to the incident.

Motorists pull a policeman from his crashed vehicle, only to be confronted by the bizarre sight of him pulling a gun, firing a shot in the air and then shooting himself in the head.

And so it goes on – rape, hijackings and crime. All in a day’s work in what is clearly an abnormal society not at peace with itself.

Perhaps the most frightening thing of all is that our society, constantly under siege of a culture of barbarism, has entered a stage of fatalistic defeatism.

We need to push back.