During A Deadly Time And A Lock-Down In South Africa Poem by Gert Strydom

With the Mandela ambassador's death
during a deadly time and a lock-down
as if all property and land it does bequeath,

the government says the land is to its rightful owners to be returned
as if it does all property in South Africa own, (1)
while trucks driven by foreigners are burned

where this government have not got a right to amend the constitution,
where no law but Roman-Catholic Natural law is by me known (1)
that in it brings from all property this kind of dispossession.

What kind of rights do I possess and what liberty
to life, to make a living, to own property in any place and town
where from racist Affirmative Action and BEE laws I am not free? (2)

Black robbers walk in and one do want kill my mother and me
to a early grave want to take us both down (3)
do steal two mobile phones, which were my property

and the police laugh outside the property, it's very funny,
their actions do the lawlessness in South Africa crown,
the Police Captain does childish-mischief in this see

and as in Zimbabwe dispossession of commercial farms will famine bring.
The idea that what a white person own does not to him belong is full-grown (1)
and this does affect life, living and almost every other thing,

while the constitution is overridden by state-control in this time of emergency
and government decides on what you can buy and away all liberties are thrown
as if its restrictions do only affect some and to others are meant to be

and in all of this with government's inabilities people live in great fear (4)
think that government do with them around clown,
that destruction and a time of death are very near.


[Poet's notes:

(1)The Papal Encyclical: "Rerum Novarum contains it's view on natural law by Thomas Aquinas: " "Goods of some are due to others by the natural law. There is no sin if the poor take the goods of their neighbours. In cases of need, all things are common property, for the need has made it common. Not only is such taking of another's property not a sin, it is not even crime. It is lawful for a man to succour his own need by means of another's
Property by taking either openly or secretly, nor is this properly speaking, theft
or robbery. It is not theft, properly speaking to take secretly and use another's
property in a case of extreme need, because that which he takes for the support
of his own life becomes his own property by reason of that need. In a case of a
like need a man may also take secretly another's property to succour his
neighbour's need." Summa Theologiae ii-ii th Article by Thomas Aquinas"

(2)With Affirmative Action the right to employment is based upon the colour of skin.BEE is Black Economic Empowerment

(3)I will not write politically correct where there is oppression, injustice or any kind of evil.I have been reprimanded before by using colour where it comes to people.I am writing factually correct when I write and tell the absolute truth as it really is.There had been three black men in the robbery.I am 56 years old, my mother 86 and her sister 92.One of the black men jerked the 92-year-old lady around.The exact words to my mother by one of the other black men were: "White woman shut-up or I will smash your head until you are dead."His exact words to me were: "White-man I am going to kill you."For a full description of what happened during the robbery read my poem:

Robbery in Springs South Africa at 13h00 on 23 June 2020 (Sonnet sequence)
I
In Springs, South Africa, at Lloyd Street
just as I was busy posting my poetry
afraid I heard my mother scream for me,
did an eighteen-year-old black-man meet

with my 86 year old mother near his feet,
with his hand on her mouth I did him see,
the other hand with a pipe threateningly.
At the moment he was going her to beat

he screamed and I clenched my fist:
"shut up or I will smash your head, "
of an armed robbery I got the gist
he stopped and did hit me instead.
"I will kill you, " he did again insist
he did threaten to beat me dead.

II

He did threaten to beat me dead,
while he swiped with a iron-pipe
(that pipe was not filled with lead)
I blocked both times he did swipe,

turned and ran back to my study
found a cap-gun, a mere child's toy,
while time ticked as if in a eternity,
bluffing as a strategy I did employ.

They dropped the new television set,
with two mobile phones they ran away.
I do not know if the police will them get
and it turned out to be a hell of a bad day.

People say I am lucky to be still alive,
that they did not have a gun or a knife.

(4)"There is one type of fear more devastating in its impact than any other:
the systematic fear that arises when a state begins to collapse. Ethnic hatred is
the result of the terror that arises when legitimate authority disintegrates."
Michael Ignatieff: Blood and Belonging - Croatia and Serbia.