The Rule of Law is quite a simple concept. Essentially it means that no-one, no individual, company, trust or any other body is above the law. The law, being something which can unemotionally and clinically be interpreted in order to apply equally to everyone, thereby giving credence to the premise of no-one being above the law.
History is littered with heads of state, company directors, soldiers in war and ordinary citizens who thought that some twisted moral verification for breaking the law and not respecting the law and courts of their country. In countries where this has been allowed to become the norm, chaos has reigned supreme and a lot of the countries where the rule of law has collapsed have seen economies decimated and police rendered ineffective against sky-rocketing crime rates.
What we are seeing in South Africa at the moment is mass rioting, looting and civil unrest, all supposedly in the name of freeing an ex-president from prison. Let is not lose cognisance of the fact however that this certain ex president is not now only a convicted criminal, convicted of showing the utmost contempt and disdain for every sphere of our courts in the country, but also the same person who yes, whilst still to stand trial (and therefore legally innocent of the 16 charges he faces at present) has been charged with 16 counts of corruption in respect of 783 illegal payments received by him.
The main point at hand is that Mr Zuma is at present a convicted criminal, convicted of contempt of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in our land, for failing to honour an order to appear before the very commission of inquiry which he himself established whilst president of the country.
The specific facts behind the protests we are seeing however are totally irrelevant. Why?? Well simply because, every South African has the right to protest peacefully. This right is enshrined in our Constitution and is a vital and important right for any democratic country such as ourselves. What NO South African has the right to do however is:
So everything we are seeing going on in the country at the moment is criminal, unlawful and quite frankly unacceptable, no matter what the purported moral virtue of the people perpetuating these crimes and in fact downright terrorist behaviour in that other South African’s feel terrorised into not even leaving their homes, terrorised into not opening their shops and offices and terrorised of being in their own country whilst these criminal thugs are on the streets.
It is easy to sit back, say this is not our problem, leave it to the police (Whom are outnumbered by these thugs), watch as property is destroyed and people are injured. This will never ever change the mentality amongst so many that the law does not apply to everyone.
Or, we can speak out, every single one of us as proud South Africans. Let us voice our support for our police and army on social media, let us voice our support for our judiciary which has been severely tested this last two weeks but has, I am proud to say, stood up and said that the law is there for everyone and applies to everyone equally, no matter your history, political affiliation, power to influence people to commit violence and horrible crimes in your name. Let us all, when we see criminal activity like this, contact police, contact our local security companies and all stand up and take a stand.
When we allow criminals and thugs to make us fear our own country, to make us upset our lives and to run riot through our streets, we are making the problem worse, not better.
The law does not care if you are young or old, male or female, does not care about your ethnicity, education or orientation. It is the law which keeps a country safe, gives order and the certainty that a country where the law is respected will never degenerate into anarchy. So let us all put our country first, condemn the downright terrorist behaviour we are seeing on our streets in many parts of the country at present, and support the basic principle that no matter who you are or what your motivation is, if you are a criminal you are a criminal and you deserve, and should be punished accordingly if you break the law. If we capitulate on this now, we open the door for the absolute destruction of our country long term as every politician and ordinary citizen will think that the law is then simply made to be ignored.
Mc Naught and Company Inc stand proudly behind the law, our courts and the Rule of Law and we call upon ALL true South African’s to do the same.