Truth stranger than fiction

Truth is inevitably stranger than fiction, and sometimes it’s so bizarre that it’s almost too difficult to believe.

This week, when we were looking for stories, knowing we had to put our newspaper to bed a day early – on Tuesday – because of the Women’s Day public holiday, we looked at both the taxi strike in the Western Cape and incidents of terrorism in Israel.

When we look at crisis situations, we always look at the impact on the Jewish community in South Africa or, in Israel or other overseas countries, the impact on the expat community there.

Never in our wildest imagination did we consider that we would find Israelis visiting South Africa falling victim to the violence of the taxi strike. Not one Israeli family, but two!

Meanwhile, as far as we know, few if any other white people – never mind Jewish – were caught or attacked in the violence of the strike.

How does that happen?

Some people could possibly jump to a conclusion that it was an attack because they were Israeli, and that it was somehow politically motivated, but they would be wrong. There was absolutely no way of knowing that these families were Israeli, or even that they were foreigners. It was simply bad luck and, of course, due to the unacceptable level of violence of the Cape Town strike.

These families were tourists and simply enjoying their time in our beautiful country. What madness that they would be caught in the crossfire of the chaos!

In another uncanny unrelated coincidence, this weekend in Israel, there was an attack involving five masked men hurling stones at a family driving their vehicle near the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The couple and their three children were hurt by shards of glass following the stoning.

This almost imitated the attacks on the Israeli families in the Cape, where projectiles were thrown at their moving vehicles. Stoning cars does occur as a form or terrorism in Israel, but it’s rarely in the middle of a city.

Again, can you find a connection? I don’t believe there is, but it’s so odd that it’s so similar, don’t you think?

I know Israelis and many in the diaspora have been shocked at the protests and sometimes overzealousness of policemen in Israel. However, in Israel, we have not seen civilians harmed in the course of protests, especially not due to the kind of violence we’re seeing in Cape Town.

The Israeli protesters and those opposing them are generally non-violent, and violence is not the way of negotiations in the ongoing political crisis in the Jewish state. So, while Israelis on both sides may be angry and frustrated, they don’t fear for their lives. And Israelis, though they have pushed the boundaries in terms of temporarily bringing the country to a standstill, they haven’t attempted to bring the economy to a standstill.

However, in Cape Town, shops have been unable to operate because their workers cannot get to work. Many schools are closed for the same reason, and small businesses have battled to keep going. In fact, service delivery, healthcare, and even food supply, has been negatively impacted by the strike.

And people who would otherwise take public transport to work or school are afraid of what might happen to them if they are out on the street, so they have stayed home to protect themselves and their families. Those who would ordinarily be taxi passengers are the ones who have mostly been victimised by violence, thuggery, and intimidation.

And if you’re wondering what this is all about, amazingly, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) is demanding that the government effectively break the law to make the taxi drivers’ lives easier. It has called on the government to stop impounding taxis with cracked mirrors or what it deems to be minor misdemeanours. Perhaps they are being overzealous down in the Western Cape, but I have seen taxis on the road here that shouldn’t be anywhere except in a scrapyard, and they continue to operate at full capacity. To be honest, I find it hard to believe that traffic police would impound a taxi for a cracked mirror, even if this is according to the law. I’m not sure that they would risk their lives for that.

Now, I understand that it’s expensive to maintain vehicles, but when you’re carrying passengers and you’re on the road, surely it’s not too much to ask to ensure that your vehicle is properly roadworthy?

Then, they have demanded to be able to drive on the other side of the yellow line clearly demarcated to prevent people driving there for safety reasons. What’s complicated about this law? It’s about safety on the road, both for those in the taxi, drivers included, and everyone else using the road.

How can you negotiate laws like this? Do you think Santaco is doing this now because we’re coming up to elections and perhaps it believes it might get away with it because parties want votes?

Then, Santaco comes to the negotiating table with people bearing AK47s. This is taking the idiom “bring a knife to a gunfight” to a whole different level. Honestly, how is the government meant to negotiate with assault rifles. This is totally ridiculous!

Meanwhile, Cape Town has come to a virtual standstill. There has been a court interdict that prevents roads from being blocked, and Santaco said the strike would be over by Women’s Day.

The most unpleasant part of this is that it’s the honest, reliable working-class person who just wants to be able to get on with their working week who has been punished. It’s those same people who fork out their hard-earned money to keep the taxi industry going just so they can get to work and back.

Would that those negotiating on both sides actually consider them in all of this.

Shabbat Shalom!

Peta Krost

Editor