READER LETTER | Violence solves nothing, but brings pain

As I watched what was playing out on TV this weekend, with ANC and MK Party supporters said to be pointing spears at each other, I wondered how something that started with the liberation of black people could end up turned into black-on-black violence.

Agrim reminder of killings that preceded the unbanning of political parties in the early ’90s, and the arrival of democracy. It brought back memories of killings one morning, of commuters on a train to Pretoria who were attacked with pangas and guns by people wearing red headbands.

The injured were rushed to Natalspruit Hospital after getting off at the nearest platform. A mother and her daughter were brought in having suffered traumatic amputations of the right and left legs respectively, as they were seated opposite the aisle of the bus when a bomb was thrown between them.

So much suffering that left people either dead or maimed is something that must never ever be repeated again. Don’t we ever learn from all these lessons? Violence never solves anything, except suffering for all parties involved.

Freedom from colonial bondage was achieved in the early 90s, we can’t be flogging a dead horse now. What we should be doing is to strive for the reconstruction and development of the country and approach the upcoming elections with that objective in mind.

Cometh Dube-Makholwa, Midrand