Dialogue while nation burns

On Wednesday night, Mthokozisi Mvelase was shot dead and his vehicle was set alight at Maponya Mall in Soweto.

- Sydney Majoko

On Wednesday night, Mthokozisi Mvelase was shot dead and his vehicle was set alight at Maponya Mall in Soweto. He had been in Johannesburg for two weeks and an Uber driver for just three days when his life was gruesomely ended.

The next day, a minibus taxi was set alight in what was clearly the Soweto community's angry response to the killing of the Uber driver.

This incident encapsulates South Africa's current social and economic state: youth unemployment, taxi industry lawlessness, mafia tactics in the transport sector, police inertia and the government's lack of urgency in addressing citizens' safety and transport concerns.

In the background, President Cyril Ramaphosa's government and former president Thabo Mbeki's foundation were at odds over the National Dialogue that the president insisted was starting on Friday at the University of South Africa in Pretoria.