POLITRICKING | ‘Who feeds another human being to pigs?’- Dr Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi tackles SA’s mass trauma
Fraser-Moleketi addresses the Limpopo pigsty murders horror and how it is a manifestation of a mass scale trauma ingrained in the then-oppressed and oppressors in South Africa.
Dr Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. Picture: itupictures/Flickr
“What kind of person feeds another human being to pigs?”
This is the question that struggle stalwart Dr Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi posed as she zeroed in on South Africa’s social cohesion project.
She was speaking as a guest on the second season of Politricking with Tshidi Madia.
Two women were shot and killed at a Limpopo farm last month while looking for dumped expired food. Their remains were subsequently fed to pigs at the very farm in the province where they died.
Three men are being charged with murder, attempted murder, and defeating the ends of justice in this horror.
“And what we should bear in mind is this was discovered. Aren't there instances where people are doing it and it's not been discovered?
“We need to deal with these issues, but to deal with that, we need to rebuild social cohesion. Ubuntu mustn't be a slogan when we choose. It must be about a way of life,” said Fraser-Moleketi.
“Social cohesion is a big issue!”
SOUTH AFRICA NEEDS MASS COUNSELLING
The former Public Service and Administration Minister says as a country, there’s a tendency to underestimate the fact that the collective DNA of South Africans may have absorbed trauma.
“And it's not just trauma that was sort of absorbed by then [and] then oppressed. It's even trauma that's ingrained in the DNA of oppressors, because think back of this issue, of the farm issue, what kind of person feeds another human being? I mean, your whole humanity has been stripped away,” quipped the former uMkhonto we Sizwe member.
She further added that South Africa had not dealt with its trauma on a mass scale, referring to the horrors of the apartheid era.
“Family members who have been murdered, people who still don't know about family members - who disappeared, who did it, where are their remains?
“There's also those who carried out those actions, and what stories do they tell their children, their families, and that's ingrained in it.”
Otherwise, she noted, it’s probably that people have just become dispensable.
The chairperson of the Thabo Mbeki Foundation said the country had lost everything, but that the time to rebuild the fabric of society had arrived.
“We need to deal with the family and help strengthen the family in whichever form it is. At the moment, we've got to ensure that the interfaith community plays a role in order to try and change things, but the professionals in these areas must also look creatively at how you deal with mass counselling.”
SOCIAL COHESION DIALOGUE FOR THE NATION
Formations including Thabo Mbeki Foundation, Luthuli Foundation, Leah and Desmond Tutu Foundation, and more recently, the De Klerk Foundation, on 27 June 2024 called for a national dialogue to dissect and remedy the country’s ill 30 years into democracy.
These include the stagnant economy, ever-rising unemployment and poverty, worsening inequality, crime, corruption and lawlessness.
She said Mbeki also pointed out “a fracturing of society and the weakening of social and national cohesion”.
Quoting former statesman Thabo Mbeki: “Our people should convene in a new and truly inclusive national dialog to answer the question, what is to be done?”