By Mitch Launspach
While not condoning the violence that occurred outside Brackenfell High School in Cape Town, I am at a loss to understand how the South African Human Rights Commission, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and Judge Siraj Desai, justify the EFF’s protests at the school as legitimate and acceptable.
Considering that the party was a privately-arranged affair, at a private venue and not the school, it is nonsensical to suggest that the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) protest at the school itself was legitimate.
This is especially so, considering that matric exams were in progress.
Matrics bringing their school careers to a close with a party is a long-established tradition.
I’m certain that a large number of private parties were held across the area, and who can say how many, if any, were racially mixed?
If this is the case, then both bodies, as well as Judge Desai, overreached their powers and did themselves no favours by ruling as they did.
Will this ridiculous ruling apply to all private gatherings?
The resulting violence, while unfortunate, was inevitable once the EFF made it its business to protest.
The EFF has a long record of violence, intimidation, damage to private property and looting, so it was only natural that parents, of all races, whose children were writing exams at the school, expected the worst, and arrived primed for action.
The results, while sad, were inevitable.
South Africans must expect more of the same, until the EFF are brought under control.
The Star