Carol’s Column

I used the word lemming advisedly

It is holiday season and in Cape Town, like lemmings, tourists are streaming into the environs in the hundreds of thousands.

Which is wonderful to see. Despite the traffic jams and congestion, the beaches are more than long and wide enough to accommodate everyone and the city's attractions are endless.

What's even happier is that alongside the Gauteng accents of every kind, you hear French, German, American and Japanese being spoken. At this time of the year, Cape Town is truly cosmopolitan.

I used the word lemming advisedly though. These small fluffy arctic rodents are legendary for their strange death-wish sociological behaviour. Each year, in their millions, they collect together then run towards the sea leaping off high cliffs to their rocky deaths below. Seemingly, it is an uncontrollable suicide urge.

Nobody knows why they do it although behavioural psychologists and zoologists have suggested stress. Alternatively they surmise it is nature's natural selection process to ensure that the species is thinned sufficiently to enable it to survive.

So why do I think of incoming tourists in terms of lemmings? Because why go somewhere where there is a strong possibility that you could become a statistic in a bomb attack?

In the past couple of years in the Western Cape, there have been over 70 bomb attacks. Most, if not all, with pipe bombs. In each case, the method of bombing is similar if not identical. For instance, according to reports, the triggering devices might be different – an alarm clock, a cell phone, whatever.

It is not unreasonable to suspect that the inspiration and the source of the planting of these bombs is one and the same.

Sites picked for these bomb attacks have been variable and range from blasts against specific persons to public places of worship, night clubs and restaurants. Places where men, women and children go to eat pizzas, sip cooldrinks, boogie the night away or pray.

The effect has been universal. Bombs have caused terror, bloodshed, horror and fear. Among ordinary people, there is outrage, disgust and anger.

This said, I believe it is time for people throughout our country to ask some pertinent questions.

As a mother of four children, as an ordinary member of the public, I want to know why with over 70 attacks during this time - including the ones that hit world headlines – Planet Hollywood, Blah Bar and St Elmo's – there has not been one single successful arrest?

Not one. Can it be that our police force is useless? That in 70 odd separate cases they are unable to make one arrest? That they are unable to find the culprits?

Or is it conceivable that our policemen, many of whom are hardworking, diligent and highly competent detectives have made progress? Could it be possible that higher up in the police force, right at the top, including in the Western Cape, there is obfuscation, a reluctance to act against suspected perpetrators – and I cannot believe that at this stage, there are not suspected perpetrators. Even equally sinister, could it be that in some higher circles - regional and central government - the suspected bombers are being protected. For whatever reason?

Was the Deon Mostert fiasco a diversionary tactic? If so, why?

As a mother of four children, an ordinary member of the public, I want to know why there has not been one single arrest in these 70-something bomb attacks?

During the coming festive season and millennium celebrations, our visitors and locals have the right to feel safe wherever they might be.

It is time we not only ask these questions, but we demand answers.

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