As South Africans we are plagued daily by countless headlines of happenings in our country. Most of these even take a comical form as South Africans across the country opt to find humour in the problems we have rather than demanding solutions.
So my question is, as South Africans are we simply not angry enough? Why is it that on a weekend where load shedding continued to worsen we were bombarded with the story of Thabo Bester and his co-accused? In addition to this, we have a minister who has been solely employed to tackle the energy crisis in the country, yet it continues to worsen.
So what must happen now? As the citizens of this country what are we supposed to think or feel?
I don’t want you reading this to misunderstand me. Yes as South Africans we are a resilient population who have found ways to cope in these rather trying times. However I often wonder whether the government has since found a get-out-of-jail-free card knowing that we are likely to complain, laugh about it, see numerous memes about it on social media and move on. They know we won’t do more than that.
The National Shutdown was implemented and encouraged and yet the turnout was lackluster at best. Our Secretary General, Fikile Mbalula would hold a press conference thanking South Africans for not partaking in the shutdown while also alluding to the fact that he believed that that meant that South Africans were behind the ANC. What also made this situation harder to watch was seeing his comedic take on the matter.
I often wonder whether our politicians don’t just sit over supper and drinks and laugh at us as the people they lead because they know that we are seemingly not angry enough. We are a peaceful people who also seem to glorify these politicians as though they are some mini gods.
Have you sat and thought about this? About how our peaceful nature comes with a price, us shooting ourselves in the foot?
As I mentioned earlier our headlines are dominated by the story of Thabo Bester and his extravagant lifestyle in and out of jail. More updates keep making their way to the media and social media about how this man walked in and out of jail as and when he pleased. It is further reported how many inmates are permitted to leave their cells, commit crimes and come back to the prison as though it’s someone returning after a day’s work.
During the week there was an inquiry with the Correctional Services Department and members of the Democratic Alliance about how this could have happened. Needless to say that members of the ruling party saw no urgency on this matter and instead would attack the members of the DA.
I was marvelled at this and at some point I asked myself whether the politicians of the ruling party were so arrogant and is this because they aren’t being challenged adequately? How long will we as the people of the country continue to endure the mistreatment from those who are meant to serve us? What needs to change within the South African psyche in order for us to make a sustainable change? Or are you reading this article and maybe you have consoled yourself to thinking this is how it will always be and choose to roll with the punches?
Inspired thinking
