WE HOPE that the Transnet strike will be resolved soon. It is causing much anxiety in the country with many citizens unsure of reaching work safely.

WE HOPE that the Transnet strike will be resolved soon. It is causing much anxiety in the country with many citizens unsure of reaching work safely.

Many are fearful of losing their jobs in these uncertain times when companies are considering retrenchments in the aftermath of the recession.

The Transnet strike is yet another example of our inability to speak to each other. Negotiations are seldom fruitful. South Africans do not want to compromise. They prefer to resort to violence, spill blood, and fight to the death.

This tactic is used in service delivery protests, in vigilante violence, in strikes by municipal workers and many others.

Every few weeks we have to contend with a new strike that is only settled if one party draws blood.

We have to learn new methods of negotiation and respect each other and our opposing views. We appeal for calm while the talks are ongoing and hope a resolution will be found quickly.

It is in the interests of the country that we present a unified front to the hordes who will soon descend on our country.

We have been made fun of and vilified in the overseas press. Every little incident has been used to depict us as bloody savages who do not deserve to host the World Cup.

Increasingly, the media tone is getting shrill with little evidence of the truth. Bloody strikes will stoke the misleading perception that we are a nation of criminals.

Perhaps we should pledge to postpone our strikes until after the games when we have seen our visitors off back home.