Fellow South Africans, lend me your ears. When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. We have, once more, just experienced fuel hikes that some analysts claim are associated with the recent unrest purportedly over Jacob Zuma's incarceration.

The political cadres will not feel the pinch as they have access to state funds and resources. As usual, we are the ones who will pay the price and face the consequences of the looting.

This battle of the elephants is just the beginning, the climax is yet to come. Where will our country and its infrastructure be if we don't learn from our mistakes? In situations like this, the Zulu culture has the appropriate warning: "Uzofela umhluzi inyama ungayidlanga!". 

Let's refuse for mere men to turn us into their own puppets and instruments of distraction to our own future.

• Norman V Mahlangu, Siyabuswa