South Africa is a country at war with itself, the warlords and rapists are among us

Thamsanqa D Malinga is a director at Mkabayi Management Consultants; a writer, columnist, and political commentator, as well as the author of Blame Me on Apartheid and A Dream Betrayed.

By the time we wake up, we will have caused so much damage that we will not realize that we have killed any potential that South Africa had. We will be a country so torn that we will not be able to salvage what’s left of the broken souls.

I have lived in and witnessed many wars in my beloved Africa, and how warlords use some tools that I see so prevalent in this so-called democratic South Africa, the “miracle of Africa” with “the best Constitution”.

Being a news junkie from an early age, I followed not only African wars, but also Western wars led by that champion of democracy, the land of the free, and the country of the brave. I am not going to write about the Yanks though. My focus is on the so-called “best country in Africa”.

When I followed news of warlords like Jonas Savimbi, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, Charles Taylor, and others in their cohort, what was worse to see was not the men getting maimed. It was the young boys conscripted and drugged into fighting wars, the women abducted and kept in camps for the pleasure of the rebel soldiers and raped at will, children killed as villages were attacked and young girls raped and groomed as sex slaves in rebel camps.

Those are the hallmarks of war. Conscripting young men, barely old enough to hold their manhood straight in order to pass water (thanks, Wally Serote, for this line). You keep cities in the dark, citizens hungry, and young people drugged up and susceptible to being used as soldiers for any rhetoric-spewing despot. Women and children are victims of violence of unparalleled depths.

Read in Daily Maverick: “South Africa comes first — this country is ours and not an ANC (Pty) Ltd”

If you think I am describing Tigray or Burkina Faso, where a coup has just taken place, think again. This is a description of the current state of South Africa.

Yes, the same South Africa that Nelson Mandela spoke dearly of in his inaugural speech as the first democratically elected president 28 years ago, saying “never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world”.

It seems he spoke too early.

According to the World Population Review, citing the Global Peace Index released by the Institute for Economics and Peace, South Africa is number 46 among the world’s most dangerous countries. The fact that we are sitting below some of the most advanced countries in the world is no feat to gloat over. Hell no.

The same review says that South Africa is number three in terms of rape, only beaten to the first and second spots by two SADC neighbors. What caught my eye in the report is this:

“For the year 2010, South Africa had the highest rate of rape in the world at 132.4 incidents per 100,000 people. In a survey released by the South African Medical Research Council in 2009, approximately one in four men admitted to committing rape. However, the government in South Africa is working to address this dysfunction, and proponents maintain that the rate has dropped to 72.1 in 2019-20 reporting.”

This made my blood run cold. Do you know why? I have a small circle of friends. Only three. That means it is likely that one of us is a rapist. Yes, they live among us.

Then comes the issue that’s currently in the news – the killing of children. So much has been written about this and I will not regurgitate the chronicles. I can only ask: why the lethargic reaction from the authorities? We are tired of ministers shedding crocodile tears for the media to make the eight o’clock news – it is just nauseating. As Unicef declared in February 2022, “352 child murders in 90 days are 352 too many”.

Read in Daily Maverick: “The South African government is just another unashamedly absent father”

The killing of children and women is not new, for Pete’s sake. For years psychopaths have declared war, aided by the government which has also declared war on citizens by plunging people into poverty and darkness and leaving young people to drown in drugs.

As a country, we are at war with ourselves. Pity we seem not to be aware. By the time we wake up, we will have caused so much damage that we will not realize that we have killed any potential that South Africa had. We will be a country so torn that we will not be able to salvage what’s left of the broken souls.

So, what then? I write about all this and cite reports – do I have a solution? The first step is to get rid of the “warlord” that stands to benefit from all the mess. Come 2024, use your vote wisely.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Let’s shout at the top of our voices and make it impossible for incompetent Cabinet ministers to talk down to us”

In the meantime, if you can write against social ills that the current government presides over and does not eradicate, please do so. If you find a platform to talk or contribute and speak against this “warlord” of a government that sits in comfort while children are dying and women are raped and people die in squalor, please use that platform, even at the risk of being labeled a “clever black” or an “honorary white”.

I would rather be labeled and live with that label than live to experience the trauma of another Baby Tshepang raped when she had barely finished breastfeeding and could barely walk, and many more like her.

Oh, dear Nelson, we have become the skunk of the world and your party has become a “warlord” that has allowed weapons of war to be unleashed on South Africans. DM