You can be sure that history will judge these warmongers harshly

History will judge them harshly

Brutal wars are raging in Ukraine, Sudan, and Gaza. These wars would be unsustainable if enough soldiers and civilians were so shocked and disgusted by the grotesque killing, maiming, deprivation, and destruction that they withdrew their support.

Can it ever be considered proportional to use massive air power at low altitudes and risk hundreds of innocent civilian lives? Uncontrollable wars of aggression have made this era one of the most perilous in human history.

Today’s brutal conflicts reflect a dangerous instinct – to eliminate any potential competitor at any cost.

It is during armed conflict that human rights are most frequently and gravely violated. The escalating assaults on already mutilated regions are a gut-wrenching and prolonged war on defenceless civilians.

Our inaction – and our delusions – will ultimately cost humanity more than it can afford.The outrageous lies and euphemisms used by leaders and propagandists only add insult to the obliteration now underway. The aerial and missile assaults, unprecedented in 21st-century warfare, have caused immense destruction. Black smoke rises from burning buildings in a man-made inferno with no limits.

Every day, we witness reports of airstrikes that seem reckless and impulsive. Every misdirected bomb, every brutal raid, every innocent civilian killed, every lie, denial, and minimisation becomes recruitment propaganda for those who believe in the cruel doctrine that might is right.

In today’s international politics, force has become the ultimate arbiter of disputes. Overwhelming military power is increasingly used to achieve political ends. But this tormented world cannot be rebuilt with bullets and bombs. The advanced military technology now in use has made many conflicts uncontrollable. Massive aerial assaults have pulverised entire regions. Battlefronts have become unrecognisable, and civilians can no longer be protected.

The perverse logic of war is now such that force precedes reason. What we are witnessing is an industrial-scale campaign to erase every vestige of human civilisation. In societies poisoned by moral decay, innocent civilians become targets of bigotry, terror, savagery, and slaughter.It is tragic that the world’s conscience has not been sufficiently awakened by the scale and brutality of what is unfolding across our battered planet. War is deeply rooted in the worst instincts of humankind and embedded in the very structure of governments and societies.

The sense of horror and helplessness in the face of relentless violence is becoming overwhelming. The insane bombardment of civilian areas and institutions violates even the most basic rules of warfare. We must not look away. We must condemn these inhuman wars and the monumental loss of life. Doing so may help save the lives of children and civilians still caught in the crossfire.

The opportunity to resist the massacre of the innocents rests with us. When human dignity is threatened and lives are in danger, national borders and political sensitivities become irrelevant. We, the living, must speak for the dead. We cannot recover their mutilated dreams, but we can honour them by taking a stand.

Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. By remaining silent or indifferent, many world leaders qualify for history’s eternal disgrace – what I call “The Badge of Shame.”

History will judge them harshly. | Farouk Araie Johannesburg

The genocide elephant in the room

Until the elephant in the room is acknowledged and removed, denials of white genocide are going to ring hollow.

In an address to the G20 Development Working Group, Nomthandazo Moyo of the Department of Agriculture stated: “There is no deliberate action by this government to kill white people…Our legislation and the application thereof embraces humanity irrespective of race.”

Former Cabinet minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says assertions of white genocide are unfounded. “I think it is deliberate misinformation.” If it is government policy to “embrace humanity irrespective of race,” why does it permit Julius Malema to incite mass hatred and advocate mass murder of white people?

There is absolutely no misinformation about what Malema is inciting. The harm of the blood-thirsty poison with which he is saturating the minds of millions is incalculable and cannot be casually fobbed off. If the ANC government truly embraced humanity it would act decisively and conclusively in dealing with Malema and his ilk.

It managed to act with alacrity and firmness against two hapless white women, Vicky Momberg and Penny Sparrow, for racial references that were mild in comparison with Malema’s white slaughter incitement.

So, here’s the challenge: until and unless the elephant in the room, Malema, is arrested, convicted of inciting white genocide and his racist demagoguery is declared punishable by lengthy imprisonment, there can be neither credibility nor assurance from the ANC that white genocide intentions are merely “misinformation.” | DR DUNCAN DU BOIS Bluff

Violent Israelis deserve sanctions

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – two of the most egregious promoters and perpetrators of violation of Palestinian human rights – should, together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the most violent Jewish West Bank settlers making life a living hell for the Palestinians of that enclave, face financial sanctions and travel bans.

If imposed, the sanctions and bans would send a powerful message to Israel in response to the ongoing horror in the Gaza Strip and West Bank which has thus far claimed the lives of over
53 000 innocent Palestinian men, women and children. | Eric Palm Gympie, Queensland, Australia

Vexing reply to claims about KZN jails

The DA is deeply alarmed by the evasive and inadequate response by the Minister of Correctional Services, Dr Pieter Groenewald to a written DA NCOP question regarding allegations of corruption at the Westville Correctional Facility in Durban and the New Prison in Pietermaritzburg.

Despite damning claims that wealthy inmates are bribing officials in exchange for hospital holidays and relief from standard prison conditions, the Minister has failed to provide meaningful transparency or decisive action.

Instead, the Minister has hidden behind procedural red tape, refusing to commit to publicly releasing the findings of the internal investigation, an investigation that, to date, has only resulted in the suspension of a single Special Monitoring Section (SMS) member.

This lack of urgency and transparency is a slap in the face to the rule of law and to every South African citizen who expects equal treatment before the law. It raises a disturbing question: Is the Department more interested in protecting corrupt officials than in upholding justice? The DA will not allow this matter to be buried under bureaucracy.

The DA will now write to the Chairperson of the Select Committee on Security and Justice Committee, Hon J Mananiso to summon the Minister to appear before the committee to give a full account of the allegations and steps being taken. The people of KwaZulu-Natal, and indeed all of South Africa, deserve answers, not excuses.

The DA will continue to fight to bring an end to the culture of impunity that protects the powerful while ordinary South Africans suffer. | Mzamo Billy MP DA NCOP Member on Security & Justice

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