South Africans are putting their best foot forward in joining hands to clean up and try to rebuild sites affected by the looting and violence of the past few days.
IOL reported an outpouring of concern on social media platforms by ordinary South Africans who have offered to volunteer time and resources to businesses and people affected by the civil unrest. This has led to a number of organisations and NGOs developing plans to assist.
It mentioned clean-up efforts under way in the town of KwaMashu, north of Durban. It cited a social media post that said: ‘KwaMashu clean up the mess has started, let other places follow, yes with tears running, we have no choice, we can’t allow this to consume us alive. Will you be joining to clean up the mess in our community.’
In a statement on Wednesday, the Facebook group Rebuild South Africa, launched by volunteers wishing to assist those physically, psychologically or otherwise harmed by the violence, said it already had more than 22 000 members.
According to IOL, the hashtag #CleanUpSA has also gained traction on Twitter as ordinary South Africans share contacts and skills to restore some sort of order in what has been the country’s worst few days of civil unrest since the dawn of democracy.
Earlier this week, three senior News24 editors warned in a hard-hitting open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa that, having ‘so far … failed spectacularly’ to honour his oath to protect South Africa’s law-abiding citizens, he must now take action.
The three editors, Adriaan Basson, editor-in-chief of News24; Mondli Makhanya, editor-in-chief of City Press; and Stephanie Saville, editor of The Witness, write: ‘We will be needing you to lead what is set to be a hard and prolonged period of healing. We must say, however, that your efforts and record in managing this gravest of crises give us very little faith that you will be up to that task.
‘You don’t have much time to reaffirm the supremacy of the law in all towns and cities of South Africa, but firm, urgent action can still save this country from disappearing into the abyss.’
They noted: ‘There is no quick comeback here. It means starvation, joblessness and the end of life as any of us knew it. That’s not melodramatic.
‘It’s fact. Hope that government will take control has hightailed it out of this country.
‘Investors won’t rebuild, knowing how little regard the government gave them. If this economy ever starts to recover, it will be through the sheer guts and determination of good citizens who want to rebuild.’