Prof Cachalia is prepared for the immense challenge ahead

Professor Feroz Cachalia, whose family roots are in Benoni, has been appointed acting  Minister of Police by President Ramaphosa. He undoubtedly has the credentials to stabilise a critical state institution.

It is heartbreaking to watch as our country is torn apart by mindless violence. The massacre and murder of innocent people graphically illustrate that our rainbow nation has become a killing zone, and respect and fear for the law are non-existent.

While we remain a democracy, we seem intent on striking out at the democratic values that have enabled us to survive against the odds..But the spirit of Ubuntu has never been more alive than now.

No democracy can allow such violence. No civilised society can tolerate such wanton disregard for human lives, and no state can accept such mindless discord.

Our leaders have been on autopilot amid this crisis, shaking the country on a seismic scale. They remain deaf to the cries and agonies of the law-abiding masses, who are being robbed, murdered, hijacked and kidnapped daily, fleeing for their lives as criminals brazenly violate the country’s laws on an hourly basis..The death of many innocent people means nothing to them.

One cannot help but feel aghast, dumbfounded and taken aback when one realises that people show neither restraint nor any awareness of the enormity and seriousness of the bloody and destructive nature of what is unfolding before our eyes in 3D.

A blistering indictment of man’s inhumanity to man. As a society, we have acquired an immunity to painful tragedies.

We sadly have reached the point where we cannot engage danger anymore. We are too disengaged to connect the dots between tragedy and its human impact. 

As incredible as it seems, we have been anaesthetised to the horrors of the brutal conflicts raging out of sight. Battles that have engulfed and consumed many parts of the country.

It is shocking that heartbreaking tragedies no longer have the power to devastate us. We have developed a tolerance to tragedy.

Scores are dead and many are displaced as the anarchy and mayhem envelop cities and towns in a fog of criminal brutality that is rapidly devouring the innocent in an orgy of satanic unrestrained violence, as the horror explodes into our living rooms as we follow these blood-curdling events.

We sadly have become detached from death and destruction, because it does not affect us. We are in denial as we witness innocent lives being butchered, killed, maimed, and mutilated; little do we realise that we are rushing headlong and plunging our beloved country towards annihilation.

FAROUK ARAIE

BENONI