Fallout of random violence

THE EDITOR: On Saturday June 7, my wife, my daughter and I paid a visit to a shopping area we have come to enjoy. Accessible shops, good variety, good prices, good food, are some of the attractions of Valpark Shopping Plaza.

Walking through the lanes at about 3.15 pm we were struck by a sort of hushed, shocked quality — people standing around in small groups staring; a shop we often sauntered through had its doors closed. As we stopped to buy a plant we found out why. Not half an hour earlier, right where we stood, bandits with guns had run through. A chilling scenario went through my mind; that had we gotten there half an hour earlier and encountered these two running men with guns, that if we were in their way of escape; that if a gun had gone off, that my wife or my daughter could have been shot. My world would have ended. Not with a whimper but a bang. It can be that simple.

I could not pull myself out of this dark reverie for hours. And the day after, I read in the paper where my Prime Minister said that “the incident at Movie Towne did not affect the average citizen.” Now I am in a constant manic inner dialogue — if I drive faster to where I’m going, will that save my family? Or do I drive slower? What is the safe time to be anywhere? Perhaps at lunch today in a mall somewhere I shall be at the correct spot where a bullet cuts through air — not aimed specifically at me, of course. And if it were to pass through me at just the right junction I would personally have no more problems but suppose the unspeakable happened? Suppose it happened to my wife as she shops in a grocery or my daughter in her classroom.

Mr Prime Minister, nothing is impossible. For one quiet moment try to find that facility which most humans enjoy — it’s called imagination. Suppose for one moment of blinding illumination that not you, but your dear wife or your beloved sons were accidentally eliminated by random violence; close your eyes and make it happen — that’s how “the average citizen” feels. And the unspeakable happens all the time in our country. We are all living by luck and chance. Please Mr Prime Minister, no more fancy political white washes, no more side-stepping the issue. The “average citizen” wants to see something positive happen that will make us feel safe or at least, safer. It needs to have no stylish name. I do not want to believe, as I do now, metaphysically, a hot piece of metal is already flying through the air awaiting the right day or night to pass through delicate tissue that I love.

DESMOND JUTLA
Maraval