I'm very sceptical and worried about the so-called street committees.

I'm very sceptical and worried about the so-called street committees.

My reason for this is that they are affiliated to political parties and therefore prone to political tension that could easily spark mob attacks.

We have already seen what these committees can do. Remember the violence they spawned before the 1994 elections?

For Jacob Zuma to launch these units in a volatile province such as KwaZulu-Natal should be cause for concern.

I don't think the formation of these committees is such a good idea. The IFP will soon also want to launch their own committees and that will surely lead to political friction.

We are in a phase of our political development where there is infighting in the ruling ANC and purges and power-mongering in various municipalities. This in itself means that the country is unstable.

I might sound like a doomsayer but these are the same reasons why the ANC and IFP set up their defence units in the first place.

They were initially meant to protect communities but ended up protecting their political turf.

Why can't political parties just treat people as communities instead of as political strongholds? Why do they put innocent lives at risk?

We have just had xenophobic attacks and some communities are still spoiling for a fight, whether it be political or xenophobic.

Zakhele Lucas, Rosebank