We're at war

It really felt to me today as if we as South Africans are in the middle of a war. My colleague attended a funeral today of a friend's father, who was hijacked and shot the night of his daughter's wedding. My colleague was still so shocked, I think he just needed to unload. We were all sitting around listening to him describing the funeral and the mourning family. Slowly we all started adding our own stories of death and crime. People are dying left, right and centre. We are not safe anymore. No-one is. What will it take to stop these people from killing, raping, torturing and molesting us, our parents and our children? No-one deserves this kind of suffering. It's just so unfair, so unnecessary. Life is so cheap in this country. There is no reverence and respect for each other. It makes me sick, angry, scared and sad.

Another colleague had this to say: The only thing that has really changed since 1994 is that we're all sitting here together, from different cultures, talking about this.