Philippi attack on MPs reveals double standard

THE attack on the three DA MPs in Philippi this week was shocking in its brazenness. Ian Cameron and his colleagues left a police training facility and were met with bricks, where one was left injured and the other bloodied. It is right to express empathy for those caught in this violence; no one deserves to experience that fear.

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But we must also be honest. What happened to the MPs is the daily reality of South Africans. At the same intersections in Philippi, Nyanga, Langa, Bonteheuwel and across the Cape Flats, smash-and-grabs and armed robberies are routine. Families are ambushed at red lights, workers lose their pay to criminals, and children are left traumatised. For most of them, there is no swift police response, no urgency.