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Cape Town - It is time for all community leaders, unions and business organisations to stand together to expose the perverted logic behind the fire-bombing of trains and other disruptive protest action, according to the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He referred to a petrol bomb that was thrown at a train in Cape Town suburb Khayelitsha as part of a protest.
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“Nobody gains anything from these attacks, but everybody, including the perpetrators, are left poorer,” said Dr Ruben Richards, executive director of the chamber.
“The people who suffer most are those who are trying to help themselves and their families by going to work and to colleges and universities. They are the ones who most need and deserve our help and support.”
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Richards said when these lives were sabotaged the future of the country was sabotaged.
“We cannot solve the problem by politicising it. Slogans and entrenched views blind us to many of the underlying causes," he said.
"We all have a tendency to see the problems we want to see. We need a fresh approach and we need to work together."
He said one cannot rely on government to impose solutions, because it may not always be the right ones.
"But we do need the security forces to play a constructive and protective role," he said.
"Most of all, communities need to understand that it makes no sense to attract attention by making holes in the bottom of a life boat or to watch others making the holes that will drown us all.”
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- Fin24
* Alternatives to violent, destructive protests? Share your views.
