The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal has requested that Arts and Culture portfolio committee Chairperson, Vusi Dube, convene an urgent meeting of members in order to discuss a programme of social cohesion aimed at restoring balance in communities affected by the recent violent unrest.
The DA believes that the Department has an urgent duty to live up to its mandate, which is to develop and preserve South African culture and ensure social cohesion and nation-building. Critically, it needs to act fast to leverage on partnerships for a socially cohesive nation by preserving and protecting all cultures to sustain our democracy and build our nation.
This means that as portfolio committee Chairperson, Honourable Dube, should not be joining a clergy motorcade to the Phoenix Police Station to address far-fetched claims and promote his ANC Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction. Instead, he should be diverting his energy towards uniting communities.
Equally, instead of posting videos on social media, he should be planning integrated social cohesion programmes to get communities back on track to move past the atrocities that marred Durban in the past week.
The time has come for this Department to step up to the plate and live up to its mandate. This is no time to be living in the past. Nor must every incident be used as a means of racial division when, in fact, the recent turmoil was based on factionalism driven by the ANC.
Our communities now, more than ever, need to rise from the ruins and the rubble of the recent unrest that has left the nation divided, so that we can work on developing and restoring relationships once again.
The people of our country should not have to suffer because of faction-based control within the ANC. South Africa is one, and this needs to be made known to the world.
