The beginning of COVID-19 Level 5 lockdown will go down in Kariega’s history as the day law-abiding residents went into shelter and the lawless took to the streets to ruin and demolish.
Allanridge Civic Centre was built in honour of the iconic late Reverend Allan Hendrickse, a man who emphasised the importance of education, hard work, respect, and good manners. During the opening of the Allanridge Library it had more than 18 000 books and the circulation of books grew by leaps and bounds.
When a petrol bomb damaged the Allanridge Civic Centre during 1985, not a single book was damaged or lost. But, since the pandemic has hit the world in 2020 the lawless “who have no respect and no good manners”, targeted the Allanridge Civic Centre and Library.
They destroyed this beacon of hope to become a symbol of what the future of lawlessness looks like: ugly, sad, empty, and full of despair.
