A thriving nation is often dependant on leaders that are forthright in terms of their value system. We need to take stock of the current crop of leaders that exist in the South African electorate. Are we certain that if people vote for the party, they feel can govern that we will be in good faith or are we about to take a path that’s far deplorable than the one we are on currently 30 years into democracy.
What does it even mean to celebrate 30 years of democracy if some of the people still live in squalor and pot toilets. Have we really fallen short in 30 years of the budget fiscal to allocate money to relieve South Africans from not having adequate water resources and enough shelter. What has really happened that can be celebrated without adding a spanner in the works or frowning before we even finish a sentence. Let’s talk infrastructure, roads, dams and power stations?
We can we attribute the most advancement in the last 30 years or 60 years going back in time to the dreadful apartheid years? Everyone who was born between 1960 and 1980 seem to prefer the old guard/regime as opposed to the last 30 years of “freedom” , they have come to call it Mandela’s freedom, as though it was only former laureate recipient president Mandela who was a change agent with the Archbishop Desmond Tutu and many other activists who played a key role in the liberation struggle against the Apartheid government of Hendrik Verwoerd and the Pin Botha’s of this world.
How do you begin to talk about 30 years of freedom in the Western Cape where people of colour have gone into an abyss pit of suffering and abject poverty, where it is normal for people to kill each other because they have no sense of direction in why they co-exist with other human beings. We ned to retrospect and have a sobering conversation about the ills of the republic of South Africa and the way we have swept of all the dirt of this gigantic house under the carpet and have pretended like we are squeaky clean.
What has South Africa really done to ensure the country is the land of milk and honey for all and not only certain nationalities, how is it that we call Nigerians foreigners but rejoice at Italians or the Spanish or even Europeans settling in our country in the name of foreign direct investment. How did it happen that we negated our borders and have millions of foreign nationals unaccounted for roaming the streets of Langa, Diepsloot, Phillipi and Hillbrow? How has the Department of Home Affairs and Police missed this important assignment of guarding the borders of South Africa with their lives.
I draw inspiration from our all our sporting teams who have been incredible and the arts winning “Grammy after Grammy “and doing well at international level and on the global stage. We are a country that’s been winning outside but back home our politicians have been behaving like children at kinder garden who require supervision and naturing. We have been ravaged by corruption and Mal administration of the worst kind in billions and millions going unaccounted for and no prosecutions whatsoever nor oversight in terms of remediation. All we have heard are excuses and reasons why we should continue voting because we were liberated from suffering but there is no track record of the tangibles that have occurred consistently.
We are a country under siege and desperately need the momentum in our Arts and Sports to roll over and bring a fresh wind to blow over all our misfortunes. How have we gotten to a point of looking to ex-convicts to liberate us from an immoral justice system that seeks to further oppress citizens as opposed to advancing their cause of loving freely in their country of birth. Soon we will know when we will go to the ballot boxes, and I urge all of us to personally track back to 30 years ago and really put our lives on a plumb line to determine if we are better off or worst off from where we were in 1994.
I do understand this exercise can only be critically done by those who would have been 5/6 years of age in 1994 when South Africa went to the polls to elect new leadership for the birth of the Rainbow nation. Followed by some amazing energy in the 1995 rugby World Cup and the Afcon feat of Bafana Bafana our national soccer team who were heroic in winning the tournament in 1996. I find it very interesting that a t the back of the Springboks winning their fourth Web Ellis cup in France in October 2023. Bafana Bafana find themselves on the verge of possibly qualifying for the finals of the 2024 Afcon in Cote d’Ivoire.
The wise always say history has a funny way of repeating itself. But as scholars of history always say if you do not learn from your past can you really contribute meaningfully to the future? I submit, good leadership can transform any society anywhere in the world.
South Africa needs diligent leaders and not robust criminals who are hungry for power and money.
*Nkhoma is a business leader with a track record in the fields of public relations, marketing, and communications.
