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Greed leading the blind

What is going on in this country? The past few years has seen (at least from my own perspective), our once beautiful, emerging and golden country of Africa, decline into chaos.

Is this a case of the boiling frog?

Are we as a nation of people, black, white, Indian, coloured, Asian and everything in-between, simply too complacent to do something about it?

Have we all just become so used to being labelled as just another African continent failure that we’ve resigned ourselves to the gallows already?

Are those who keep voting for the ANC only doing so to spite those who clearly won’t? Sort of a case of cutting off their noses to spite their face.

Our government has failed us and we need to change that! It is time we all stand together and do something about it.

Our electrical supply is on a short plank off a long pier, though the water under the pier isn’t faring too well either, it too is in short supply these days and often dirty.

Our education system is dismal, having seen school pass rates reduced to ashes and to a point that, frankly, makes schooling pointless.

Our public medical health industry is a death-trap.

Our mining sector is in constant disarray with the Unions calling all the shots and holding our economy to ransom whenever they see fit.

Our economy is dwindling under the strain of constant striking and electricity supply issues amongst others. So much so that Nigeria now has a larger economy than South Africa!

Our president is woefully uneducated, an alleged corrupt man, who takes millions of tax payers money and builds completely unnecessary homesteads for himself and his cronies while his people starve.

Poverty is on the rise.

Land grabs are the talk of the town (echoes of Zimbabwe?).

Corruption, in just about every single government run public service department is rife to the point that our news feeds are constantly littered with articles of this person and that person being relieved of their positions, only to be replaced by another “soon-to-be-replaced” friends.

The “Scorpions” were disbanded after getting too close to the heels of some “important” people, downgraded in its venom to the “Hawks” and it looks like they too will soon end up with a new name, perhaps the “Puppies”?

Government, who has been in power and who have enjoyed plenty global support (financially) for 20 years, now openly and strongly points their fingers at Apartheid and Jan van Riebeeck for all their current problems instead of taking responsibility for their own actions… or lack thereof.

Crime is spiralling out of control, so much so that yet another new buzz word has hit the ground running, “vigilantism”, where the public are taking justice into their own hands (a clear sign of a failed policing and judicial system).

Xenophobia acts result in the killing of people that our government have let into the country due to their inability to control our borders.

Gangsters just waltz into our shopping malls sit down for a bite to eat and some coffee then proceed to have a free-for-all, knowing that no CCTV cameras or police in the area pose any kind of threat to them. The probability is they will never be caught, or if they are, it just means free accommodation for a few weeks before their dockets go missing and they dance their way back home well fed and ready for their next heist.

We have so-called “political parties” (I prefer the term rebel groups) running around spreading racist and hate-speech remarks aimed squarely at the minority group, sowing a message of division in their wake.

We’ve got antiquated policies to apparently “redress the inequalities of the past”, that clearly have not, are not and probably never will work. After 20 years, poverty has grown not receded. So perhaps it is time to rethink the AA/BEE policies and instead, put more effort into education and entrepreneurship and leadership programmes and let those will the correct skills to the job, colour aside.

It seems our technicoloured “rainbow nation” dream has begun an awkward twist into a black and white nightmare. It’s time to wake up now, have a cup of strong coffee and get to work cleaning up the mess.

Why is it that when Mandela was in power the nation came together, we began to prosper financially, we had hope for the future, there were very few mass strikes and everyone seemed to get along better? In my view it’s simple. Instead of blaming the past for everything, he planted a seed of peace, he started a message of progress and moving forward, he was an educated man (worthy of a leadership position) and applied his mind to the betterment of the nation (not the enrichment of his pockets). Where he was not well versed in specifics, he employed those who were (rather than yet another uneducated irrelevant friend). He never built himself an Nkandla at our expense.

Hell, even Mbeki did this country some justice, by increasing our economy further with his concentration on foreign investment and bringing a lot of business into this country.

What then has Zuma brought to our nation? What is his legacy? He has all but stripped the nation of educated, well experienced cadres in correct and relevant ministerial posts, instead handing them out like gifts to his mates. He has not addressed the majority of the problems mentioned in this article, and where he has, it’s only to blame someone else – it’s never his fault of course.

People of South Africa. I know we have our differences and we have a tainted past, but come on? Let’s not cripple our nation, just to prove a point to each other? Let’s come together, even if it’s just for this one common cause? A better country for all.

The ANC has milked the nation for far too long. It’s time they start to account for their mismanagement or ship out and let someone else, willing to actually work for their pay, do the job.

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