THE pictures in the various newspapers yesterday showed the raw anger of schoolchildren who attended the court hearing of artist Molemo Maarohanye, otherwise known as Jub Jub.
THE pictures in the various newspapers yesterday showed the raw anger of schoolchildren who attended the court hearing of artist Molemo Maarohanye, otherwise known as Jub Jub.
Maarohanye is accused of involvement in a high-speed car crash that had by yesterday killed five children.
The pictures were reminiscent of those we have seen many times since 1976 when schoolchildren took apartheid education head-on.
While we understand the anger of the schoolkids at the senseless killing, we need to guard against their behaviour spinning out of control.
The emergence of the 1980s com-tsotsi phenomenon, when criminals exploited anger against apartheid injustices to feather their own nest, must remind us how easy it is to descend into anarchy.
Enough generations of black children have had to sacrifice their youth and education fighting causes that properly speaking belonged to broader society.
We must discourage young people from taking the law into their own hands and making a habit of abandoning classes to fight social causes.
The alacrity with which these children promise murder must also send a message about the society we have become. Any right-thinking person would be concerned that our teenagers feel nothing about displaying placards that associate them with a vile and criminal act.
We need to make it clear that there can never be an excuse to behave in the same way as those whose conduct we condemn as beneath the standards we expect of civilised members of our society.
Enough of com tsotsis
THE pictures in the various newspapers yesterday showed the raw anger of schoolchildren who attended the court hearing of artist Molemo Maarohanye, otherwise known as Jub Jub.
THE pictures in the various newspapers yesterday showed the raw anger of schoolchildren who attended the court hearing of artist Molemo Maarohanye, otherwise known as Jub Jub.
Maarohanye is accused of involvement in a high-speed car crash that had by yesterday killed five children.
The pictures were reminiscent of those we have seen many times since 1976 when schoolchildren took apartheid education head-on.
While we understand the anger of the schoolkids at the senseless killing, we need to guard against their behaviour spinning out of control.
The emergence of the 1980s com-tsotsi phenomenon, when criminals exploited anger against apartheid injustices to feather their own nest, must remind us how easy it is to descend into anarchy.
Enough generations of black children have had to sacrifice their youth and education fighting causes that properly speaking belonged to broader society.
We must discourage young people from taking the law into their own hands and making a habit of abandoning classes to fight social causes.
The alacrity with which these children promise murder must also send a message about the society we have become. Any right-thinking person would be concerned that our teenagers feel nothing about displaying placards that associate them with a vile and criminal act.
We need to make it clear that there can never be an excuse to behave in the same way as those whose conduct we condemn as beneath the standards we expect of civilised members of our society.