DO people have the right to strike?
I don’t think so, at least not from my point of view.
It has become an everyday thing: people rioting and striking at the drop of a hat. Service delivery, transport, electricity, water, roads, education, not happy with demarcation of municipal boundaries, unemployment, drugs, crime – and so it goes on.
‘Angry’ people burn tyres, block roads, stone passing cars, burn schools and government buildings, and destroy public and private property.
But do they have a ‘right’ to do this?
In the township where I used to live, hardly anyone pays for electricity or water or rates and taxes. And yet, whenever there is a service delivery riot, everyone starts burning tyres, blocking roads, and lately, robbing and looting the shops of the foreigners.
Do they have the ‘right’ to do this?
People have accused several municipalities in this country of being riddled with corruption and nepotism. So what do they do? They burn their schools – robbing our youth of their education and a chance to be gainfully employed when they leave school.
Do they have the ‘right’ to do this?
In the township where I lived, most people have illegal connections to the power supply. When the municipality sends its electricians to disconnect these illegal connections, the residents throw stones at them.
Do they have the ‘right’ to do this?
Even if the illegal connections are removed, the residents reconnect to the power supply as soon as the municipal electricians leave the area.
Do they have the ‘right’ to do this?
There is this man; I’ll call him ‘John’, who lives in my old neighbourhood. John does welding behind his shack to earn an extra income.
Whenever John starts a welding job, half of the neighbourhood’s illegally connected electricity trips out. The people don’t fight with John. He is a big and very violent man. So they take to the streets and burn tyres, block the roads and damage private property.
Do they have the ‘right’ to do this?
People from rural areas put up shacks and squat on the fringes of my old township.
They demand houses, service delivery and toilets, without paying taxes or for waste removal. Whenever there is a riot or a strike, they join in and rob and loot the small businesses and houses of the permanent residents.
Do they have the ‘right’ to do this?
Sixty two percent of the people voted for the ANC in the last elections. And yet it is these same voters who take to the streets and behave like barbarians when they don’t get everything for free.
I am fed up and ashamed of my people.
You have given South Africa a rotten name overseas. Nelson Mandela spent his life fighting for you. He has wasted his time on a nation of thankless savages, hell-bent on destroying what he fought and died for.
You DON’T have the ‘right’ to do this!
JAMES MATOMA
