Striving for peace and unity in a divided South Africa

“Peace on earth, goodwill toward men”.

We hear this phrase quite often, but in our land, it appears to be evaporating before our eyes. We wonder how our people have been able to overcome poverty and hardships despite the severity of the issues at stake.

Irrespective of your colour or political affiliation, do not relent in your quest for continuous sustenance of peace and unity among us all. It is only on the basis of this that our potentials can be realised.

South Africa is our country and we are all duty-bound to protect it no matter the circumstances. Let us all join hands together to ensure that the future of generations to come is assured. Let us hand over to them a future free of violence, racial prejudice, rampant corruption, and political bigotry.

Our beleaguered souls seek calm amid the storm, peace among the chaos; we turn on the news and see another upsetting story unfolding across our battered landscape.

Approaches to peacebuilding and fragility must focus not only on the security dimension but also on the underlying causes and consequences that characterise our grotesquely imbalanced society.

It is a proven fact that we have a class society that consists of immense wealth and monumental poverty. No nation on earth can sustain such a dangerous and precarious imbalance. Sooner or later, this imbalance will erupt into an inferno that no power on earth will be able to contain.

This widening chasm must be bridged if we are serious about pre-venting another catastrophic uprising. We urgently need to formulate a positive developmental agenda and eschew sentimental rancour that can only bring doom and regrets to the entire nation.

The greatest impediment to progress in our strife-torn land is demonic corruption, which has destroyed the quality of life and turned the majority of our citizens into beggars.

The money that was embezzled by the elites over the past decades could have completely obliterated poverty.

Nevertheless, we must continue to strive for peace under these difficult conditions. Peace is not the absence of conflict.

Conflict is inevitable in human society. However, a society is judged by how it is able to manage its conflicts to ensure peaceful co-existence. The common refrain is that there can never be development without peace. Indeed, peace is a sine qua non to the development of any society.

Today, there are rampant suspicions in most parts of our national life. Suspicion breeds fear. Our country is ranked as a corrupt and violent country. It is not a medal we should wear with pride.

In this critical hour, the people of our pulverised land are crying out for positive leaders to lead us, steer us away from calamity, reunite a battered land, and restore a shattered economy. We live in very polarising times.

Division, hatred, prejudice, and jealousy infiltrate every layer of our society, separating even close friends and family members. They are enablers of development, security, socio-economic justice, and reconciliation.

They are the reasons why investing in peacebuilding and conflict resolution and prevention should be our response. Let us all, as troubled South Africans, strive sincerely for collective and genuine peace, and in the process, structure a revised nation built on equality for all.

The alternatives are too ghastly to contemplate.

FAROUK ARAIE

Gauteng