When South Africa woke up on Saturday morning, it was to the news that the #FreeZuma unrest that swept across KwaZulu-Natal on Friday had resulted in the wanton destruction of property and infrastructure, in which 23 trucks had been burned out.
Not for the first time did the country’s road freight sector ask why it had been targeted by the supporters of a criminal family whose siblings, especially Duduzile Sambudla-Zuma, had been allowed to instigate instability without Twitter, the South African Police Service, or the ANC taking decisive action.
More importantly, there’s profound disbelief in why President Cyril Ramaphosa only announced last night that the South African National Defence Force would be deployed in support of police efforts to quell the worst unrest that has gripped South Africa this century.
One would imagine that a fight-fire-with-fire approach would’ve been appropriate, given what the country has witnessed after the unrest began on Friday.
Unfortunately, it seems that destruction, extreme despair and fear for one’s family and love ones, and the bleak consequences of what awaits when enough looters have been arrested and unrest fires put out, are what it takes to spur our lame duck government into action.
Do you agree?
Take the poll.
Should soldier support have been called for much sooner, or would it have stoked the kind of violence that we are seeing anyway?
