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'I really want this 1.5% extra that I will dance twalatsa in the streets'

I doubt it's the unions' mandate to violate the rights of others or to stone motorists who might even support their cause

The news space has been filled with images of our brothers, sisters and parents blockading entrances of hospitals and schools while some who we suppose work in surgical theatres have resorted to performing illegal surgery by cutting fingers of those practising their rights NOT to protest.

Some have been quick to point out how government labour relations have failed while others have claimed police brutality, but few have commented about how unions have no or little control over their members. I doubt it's the unions' mandate to violate the rights of others or to pelt motorists who might even support their cause with stones; whether the members are nurses or teachers or even Golf Club caddies.

I remember the first march I ever took part in; I was in Grade 8, and my friend Solly and I were walking back from school when we saw people singing and dancing (it was not umshini wami though). I guess our love of music and dance tempted us to join the march. We found out that the protest march was against Edenvale hospital for refusing to allow patients from Alex because the government of that time made it law that patients from Alex must be referred to Tembisa or JHB hospitals regardless of the proximity of Edenvale hospital. Now, you'd agree that this was a good cause to dance and sing for, but things took a turn when some of the marchers influenced the rest (perhaps mob psychology had a role) to march through the area which was occupied by members of that political party that wore red ribbons on their foreheads. There were no incidents until marchers started looting shops in Pan Africa and police shot rubber bullets at the crowd and people got injured from bullets and a stampede.

What I'm trying to highlight is that great intentions of strike actions can be ruined by small callous actions, therefore losing the sympathy of the public and causing stronger measures from government.

Is there a need to blockade the entrance of hospitals so to deny the people who would generally want you to get to that 8.5% services that can mean the difference between life and death?

What pleasure does one get, knowing that a person died because they chased away the nurse who chose to exercise the right not to sing and dance in the sun?

Perhaps our peculiar history as a country is the cause of why our mothers have to resort to pole-dancing moves just to show their disgust at what the government is refusing to agree on… 1.5%.

Maybe our people should know that unlike before, those that choose not to march with us are not Impipi and that hospitals and schools belong to us and not the minister of health or education or public enterprise.

I know stones might be thrown at us who go to Helen Joseph to volunteer tonight, yet we wish teachers and nurses could be paid well. We shall continue volunteering for we know that it's our brothers and sisters, not yours, that study in these public schools while your children enjoy the air-conditioned classrooms of Model C schools. We, the public, will scrub in, for it's our families that have no medical aids paid for by government and have to endure in public hospitals.

Most of all, we, the young people of this country, shall learn not from the actions of our mothers and fathers who have no regard for rights of others.

Regardless of how bad the treatment one gets, one's integrity must always be intact. Aluta continua… but it's a different struggle of course.

 

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