The power of community - 26 May 2008

If there was one thing that prevailed in the past week during the horrific violence that keeps the hope alive of the so-called rainbow nation and may salvage our tattered image within Africa and abroad, it is the generous and giving nature of the many South Africans, who, without fanfare, mobilised their friends and neighbours, companies and clients, to give - of their own time at refugee stations, of clothes, food, blankets and cash. The empathy and majority condemnation of the xenophobic attacks on immigrants is what will prevail as the minority criminal element is tackled. That resilience of spirit is the hope for our future. Unfortunately, our politicians and state mechanisms failed us as a nation. They were not quick enough to react to contain what could have been a localised flare-up in Alex and not quick enough to react with condemnation and a presence on the ground to stop the violence from spreading. What if this were a natural disaster as Burma and China have just experienced? Where is our co-ordinated emergency response for events like this? Where were our leaders? Because make no mistake, man-made as this one was, it is still a crisis, with refugees displaced in the middle of winter into fields, community halls, churches and police stations, having lost almost everything they have - close to 50 lost their lives. And who prevailed? Who mobilised resources? The community - and this, in one of the hardest economic times we've faced in a decade. Ordinary citizens doing their moral and civic duty, dipping into their own pockets. There are many lessons to be learnt from this crisis and let's hope those lessons are reflected upon by our provincial and national government structures, as the glitter of our rainbow nation is severely tarnished.