The violent train protests and torching of municipal offices in Gauteng this week were the ”ugly face of our reality”, President Thabo Mbeki wrote in his weekly online letter on Friday.
”It is the task of our movement to mobilise the people to protect public property, which is held in trust by the state for the people.
”We should not allow hooliganism to pose as legitimate public protest, resulting in the destruction of social investment paid for with the people’s money and undermining the right to the free expression of views by the citizens.
”We should not be diverted from this task by claims of ‘anger’ that are regularly advanced to justify criminal behaviour.
”For their part, the law-enforcement agencies must act firmly to enforce the law, ensuring the safety and security of all citizens and property.”
The ugly, violent destruction of public property, private houses and looting should not be allowed to sully the achievements of the people’s struggle for democracy, Mbeki wrote.
In his letter, he contrasted the violence with the spirit of hope and optimism at the opening of the Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) at Sutherland in the Northern Cape Karoo.
”Salt is yet another outstanding example showing the progress our country is making as it engages the challenge of reconstruction and development,” Mbeki wrote.
”When we left the inspiring precinct of the Sutherland Observatory … once again we came face to face with an ugly face of our reality that seems determined to impose itself on our country as its dominant feature.
”I refer here to the sporadic criminal violence allegedly provoked by our national socio-economic challenges, which some in our country, whether consciously or not, seek to defend as justifiable ‘anger and frustration’ provoked by supposed failures of our government.”
Mbeki wrote that every genuine patriot struggling to liberate the country and its people from apartheid is angry and frustrated at its continued legacy of poverty and underdevelopment. However, they understand it will take a struggle to eradicate this legacy.
As revolutionaries, they know it can never be their task to join hands with those who oppose their own movement against the popularly elected government. — Sapa