What happened in Tembisa, the biggest township on the East Rand, has in more ways than one highlighted how dysfunctional local government – meant to be the coalface of service delivery and improvement of people's living conditions – has been.
The nation woke up to the news of chaos, death and outright mayhem in the township as residents took to the streets to protest about being ignored over service issues they have been trying to raise with the mayor, apparently for some time. By the end of the day, four people had died.
With the frustrations simmering for some while, it was just a matter of time before emotions boiled over into the kind of ugly scenes we saw on Monday when protesters raided a municipal building, blockaded main routes, torched council vehicles and stoned passing traffic, among other acts of rioting.
Given the situation on the ground, it is well within reason to expect those purported to be leaders of their communities to come to the fore and lead. But local councillors were nowhere to be seen and the one with whom the buck stops thought it's better to attend to some undefined pressing issue because she "could not be everywhere".
It is an unfortunate and Marie Antoinettesque of Ekurhuleni executive mayor Tania Campbell to send a message wittingly or otherwise that she wouldn't have been bothered while fiddling as her city burnt. It was a continuation of her attitude as she had reportedly shunned a meeting with Tembisa residents last week and instead sent a delegation to hear out the people's concerns.
But whatever the gripes people had and however those had been fuelled by uncaring leadership, there is simply no excuse for the kind of destruction visited on Tembisa on Monday. Dialogue is always the way forward, in the final analysis every conflict ends at the negotiating table. So, destroying the little we have in our communities to force our way is defeatist and will not help the cause a bit.
Now four people have lost their lives in the riots, an unnecessary loss of life.
That said, we call for a proper investigation into the deaths, and indeed every other crime committed as the protest got out of hand. Just as much as destruction of property is unacceptable, more so should be the use of unnecessarily lethal force by law enforcement to quell unrest when there are better ways to do so.
In all we hope scenes such as those seen in Tembisa aren't repeated elsewhere and that lessons are being drawn by all concerned in whatever form that there are better ways to resolve conflict and to lead. Are we listening, madame mayor?
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