As Luyanda Botha, the former post office worker who is accused of the murder and rape of the young UCT student, Uyinene Mrwetanya, in August this year, appeared in court on Tuesday this week, I drove past the post office where he worked and where the crimes are alleged to have taken place, and saw that the ribbons in her memory have all been removed.
For weeks, the ribbons on the metal fence outside the Clareinch post office hung as a grim reminder of a life that was cut short in our violent society. She was only 19 years old. It reminded us of the urgent need to address the scourge of gender-based violence in South Africa. It showed us that no place is safe; that a young woman can be raped and murdered even in a supposedly innocuous place such as a post office.
Now it looks like somebody has decided that it is time to move on from this issue, it seems, because we have dedicated enough time to it. I hope I am wrong and there is a simpler explanation.
Does the removal of the ribbons mean that we will no longer focus on gender-based violence as a society? What will it take to rekindle the kind of activism that spread throughout the country in September when thousands of people took to the streets to express the disgust at the killing of young women, including Uyinene, UWC student Jesse Hess (also 19) and East London’s young boxing champion Leighandre Jegels, 25, who were all killed within days of each other?
Later I saw on the television the reports about the thousands of people who had gathered at OR Tambo International Airport to welcome the Springboks, who had won the Rugby World Cup after beating England in the final last Saturday.
Seeing the euphoria on the faces of the supporters, I could not help but ask myself: how long will this last?
It was good to see the mixed crowd – including young and old, black and white, men and women – welcoming their heroes, and they had every reason to feel proud. Winning a Rugby World Cup does not happen every day and it was a special achievement given the state of our rugby (and some will say our country) over the past few years.
But it is worrying that some people are placing so much pressure on the Springboks after their victory. After all, no matter how special the Rugby World Cup victory was, it was still only a victory in a rugby tournament. It will not, and was not meant to, sort out all the many problems we have in our country.
But the politicians will try to milk this as much as they possibly can. Looking at the way they have been going on during the processions throughout the various cities, if you did not know better, you would be forgiven for thinking that the politicians were the ones who played against England last Saturday. Some of them have been taking centre stage at all the welcoming events, not content to let the Springbok players have their moment of glory. What is the saying about basking in reflected glory?
There is bound to be some excitement around the Rugby World Cup victory for the next few weeks at least. And as it begins to fade from our memory, we will slowly go back to our old habits and forget about this fleeting moment when we united as a nation in support of our national rugby team.
I hope that we can bottle the excitement that we have seen over the past week (as well as the activism against gender-based violence) and use it all over our society as a way to rejuvenate civic activism, corporate social responsibility and government action so that we can jointly solve the many problems in our society, instead of momentarily singing Shosholoza and holding hands. As the saying goes, together we can do so much more.
(First published as a Thinking Allowed column in the Weekend Argus on Saturday, 9 November 2019)
