CHRIS ROPER: Beware politicians’ call to violence
More and more, politicians are using the threat of violence as a political tool. Democracies — and South Africa — are not immune
Violence is quite the trend with political parties this year. And I’m not talking just the usual dictatorships, one-party states and military juntas. It’s one of the must-have branding statements for a lot of democracies too.
In some cases, it’s parties offering to make violence a state-sanctioned solution to problems they know citizens have realised are pretty much insoluble, given the historical cock-ups and corruption of past and present governments. Our very own automatic for the people party, the ATM, is jumping on that particular meatwagon. The president of the African Transformation Movement, Vuyo Zungula, made an impassioned speech which I originally thought was suggesting we kill babies because it’s better for the environment, but turned out to be the usual promise to have public executions to make us feel better about crime...
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