25 yrs ago, Pretoria Church Street bomb killed 19, injured 200 Radio Pretoria asks: 'How many more people must die before Mbeki is kicked off his soft, green chair?'
Radio Pretoria notes in its editorial today that on this day 25 years ago, the Church Street bomb exploded in Pretoria when it was crowded with shoppers. This is an English-language interpretation of their comment.
"Nineteen people died that day, and 200 were injured. The scenes of blood, shredded party parts, torn vehicles, strewn with glass raining down from the shattered windows above, the shocked faces and the help from total strangers are just some of the memories which are still lingering in our minds 25 years later.
"The silence which also descended just moments after the explosion still resounds in the ears of bystanders to this day, as well as the screaming alarms as the emergency vehicles drew closer.
"Even in a city and during an era when plastic models of various explosive devices used by terrorists were being displayed in public places to create security-awareness among the public, nobody was quite prepared for such a gruesome deed of death and destruction.'
'And the leaders - those who were ultimately responsible for this deed of terror against innocent civilians -- now sit in plush government chairs. None of these decision-makers were ever charged or prosecuted for their decisions nor their deeds.
Neither have any of these leaders who allowed this explosion ever publicly confessed, begged for mercy and forgiveness nor asked for or received any amnesty. There has also been no remorse shown by these leaders for their decision to use this violence.
Perhaps this is why these leaders today are still taking decisions which lead to violence. One of those decisions is their refusal to take any kind of stand against a dictator just north of our borders whose actions have forced millions of people to flee into our country.
These government leaders and especially Mr Thabo Mbeki must accept the ultimate responsibility for these current scenes of utter violence which are today playing themselves out in the townships' ethnic purges of so-called foreigners.
Ethnic purgers threaten to invade white neighbourhoods:Now threats are heard that these (ethnic-purgers) will spread their killing-sprees to areas mostly occupied by whites.
'It does not take much imagination that these gangs would easily be able to target anyone who does not look nor sound exactly as they do. This would in other words, undoubtedly also include whites.
'Throughout the years under ANC-governance, great care has been taken to portray all the white citizens in this country as 'strange settlers who stole people's land.' They have taken care to suppress our language, ethnically-cleansed our towns' names and deny us all access to the job market.
"How can these jobless black youths differentiate between fellow South Africans and foreigners -- those youths who show such a clear, quick readiness to push a tyre over someone's shoulders, drench it with petrol and torch that person alive?
"For many of these cruel people carrying out such deeds, this no longer has anything whatsoever to do with 'strangers', but this instead is all about venting their own frustrations at their extremely weak living conditions -- in spite of all those beautiful government promises.
'Nineteen people died on 20 May 1983 -- how many more people must still die before these decision-makers are called to order and kicked off their soft green chairs?"
http://www.radiopretoria.co.za/Nuuskommentaar.htmlby Censorbugbear