So it has finally come to this. A R40 000 bronze bust of Durban poet Douglas Livingstone bolted to its cement pedestal in our beloved Kwasuka Theatre has been stolen and will probably fetch less than R1 000 when melted down as scrap!
While it may be easy to see this outrage as yet another petty theft one in a long litany of social acts that beset our country and communities every day indicative of a criminal element allowed to run riot by an African National Congress government that has abdicated its responsibilities, I believe it goes far deeper than that.
The absurd monetary contradictions of this “transaction” aside, is this not also the pertinent indication of the depths to which we have plummeted in a country led by a government gone mad? An act of cultural rape that is the desperate end-consequence of a daily fight for survival by people in a country with a government that fails its citizens?
A government that actively litigates against the provision of life-saving drugs that could prevent the spread of Aids and save thousands of lives.
A government that says it cannot afford “the luxury” of paying a basic monthly income grant of R150 to every needy South African yet can squander nearly R70-billion on the purchase of weapons of war and more than R400-million for a presidential jet?
I thought we had plumbed the depths during the reign of PW Botha’s autocratic imperial presidency. I was wrong. Mark Lowe MP, Democratic Alliance, Durban