SOWETAN | Let's reflect on what we have become

An accident happened on Friday. 

Perhaps due to the scale of the carnage on our roads, especially during the Easter period, our society has become somewhat desensitised to the extent of the tragedies that occur on our highways. 

Therefore, a lone car plunging off an embarkment in a remote part of the country, although horrific, was never going to command national reflection. 

But this accident ought to have, because it represents everything that is wrong with our society. It exposes how ubuntu – that feel-good robe of morality we love to wrap ourselves with as a nation – is increasingly becoming a fallacy. 

Like many who live and work in the cities, Noxolo Khumalo visited her home in Ntuzuma, KwaZulu-Natal, for the Easter holidays. As she drove that night, she had no idea that the road ahead had been washed away by floods a year ago. 

There was no signage nor sufficient barricades to alert her. 

Witnesses say there were some attempts to flag her down, but she ignored them fearing she would be hijacked. 

Eventually, her car plunged off a deep crevice and she died. Those who made it to the scene immediately after the crash robbed her of her belongings. 

There are three things this accident demands that we reflect on. The first is why it has taken the government a year to fix a flood damaged road, especially one that presents such deadly risk. 

The effects of climate change are inevitable and are increasingly part of life globally. What makes us more vulnerable is our government’s inability to prepare and respond with agility in order to minimise risk and preserve human life. 

Second, the fact that barricades were insufficient or removed – as some claim – illustrates the ultimate consequences of our failure to get the seemingly mundane yet crucial things, working in our communities. 

Worse, it reflects the tragic result of the consistent destruction of public infrastructure, even that which is often viewed as small and inconsequential. 

Finally, Khumalo’s split-second decision not to stop when flagged down, is yet again a reminder of the fear that defines our lives because of violent crime. 

It is a fear so entrenched that it imprisons us in a mental world where we believe, even if irrationally, that every next person may well be a threat to our very survival.