A City Under Siege

Vusi Thembekwayo wisely said,
"nothing is guaranteed
it is gifted".

Why then do leaders control
earth's gifts -
water and vegetation;
destroy what is sown
by working hands
and fertilized by soil.
They lord over springs nurtured in stone

The people blame the H20 crises and famine on political manipulation and lies -
human maintenance and monocracy -
perhaps they are right,

Yet their bloated egos and guzzling
rob the poor of each drop
by which they live.
"Damn the bloody law", they shout.
Conspiracy theories take precedence,
driven by an insatiable hunger for justice,
views on land repartition;
the rights of the Khoi and San.

Global warming, population explosions
and no rains
but to hell with the white man
who caused Africa's pain -
May the black man rot as he
insists brown must be black.
Blame government for
gangsterism and depravity -
while the inhumane kill and plunder.
Damned apartheid that stripped
Africa's sparkle and
broke her morale and humanity;
stole her integrity and peace;
raised her corruption
and false conditional grants.

Societies steal because
they are stolen from,
hate because they are hated,
they're bigots because of prejudice,
thieves because
the poor must eat,
the old regime stole land and possessions -
the current status quo no different.

South Africa has become
what she hates -
a polluted representative democracy.
Hell indeed hath no fury
like a woman scorned.

rapists are torched yet
mothers leave toddlers to play
in streets till dark;
blame it on the system
who abuses women
as slave labour -
she lies drunk and drugged
while her boyfriend fondles
her 5year old.
He blames an unrepentant penis
and an appetite for health.

Evil is all around but the people
are stiff-necked and
stone institutions that
have long moved on -
It's fathers dead and gone.

Communities play into the hands of apartheid's prophecies
and bitterness has become
the compass by which
they journey into the future,
while our children die
and our earth dries up;
South Africa lashes out at the ghost who still haunts her heart and home.

She has ceased to take
responsibility for her actions;
It's easier to blame a moving target;
and flog a lame horse;

and so her pride
and heritage disintegrates.
vigilantes move in,
the law falls at its own hand -
the mother-land is parched;
manhood is gradually killed off,
womanhood violated.

Capitalists
Socialists
Humanists
Scientists
debate;

Whose to blame -
do the rich own the mountains,
the oceans and the land -
do the people -
the Khoi or the San?

We challenge drought alerts;
"It's a hoax" we say,

as the arid land mourns,
our egos grow,
intellectual theories mount;
Acquivers are pumped
desalination disputed -
Springs milked.

Manenberg revisits the stone-age
Fires ravage natural resources
Hanover park is shot into doomsday
Khayelitsha a mere carcass of its beauty -
The Lost City drenched as with
the sweat of a TB patient.

But our hate escalates
Our pangas fulfil their arc
Our greed grins menacingly
our poverty perverts integrity
The sangoma throws his bones -
we cannabalise -
and dog eats dog -
rebels of an alien kind.

When hope buckles
some relent;
but others,
pray.

Blame blame
Whose to blame?

Our taps leak
Crops die
the earth thirsts
and our blood runs free -

"The Wise Vusi" said,
"Nothing is guaranteed,
It is all gifted".

Let the pipes of peace
ring out and let us pray
that earth's gift of springs
quench Africa's  thirst.



(C)Jambiya
"The power of the word"