History is repeating itself!

History is repeating itself!

In the early to mid-1970’s, over 20 years since apartheid had started the situation in the country had reached boiling point with tensions rising daily, a number of things were happening in the country that in my opinion are occurring more regularly in today's “new SA” and are definitely reminiscent of the past.

In the 70’s many parts of SA were in the grip of violent protests; burning of cars and tyres, occupation of land, stone throwing, barricading of roads, trashing of public and private property etc. were all acts of vandalism that took place on a regular basis. During this time period the country experienced crippling strike action with demands for better wages, better working conditions and equality amongst racial groups just a few of the points being raised. SA was under huge International pressure through economic sanctions, trade embargos and the refusal by countries to grant travel visas. The government was refusing to acknowledge that they were in the wrong and adopted the “ostrich approach” by burying it’s head in the sand and hoping that (through police intervention) the problem would go away and sanity would prevail, alas this did not happen and by the early 1980’s SA was isolated from the International community and having to survive with the help of very few friends. The pressure being exerted on the SA government by the International communities became so intense that the government had no option but to start changing its ways and the process of ending apartheid began, by the early 1990’s political prisoners were being released, activists were returning from exile, apartheid style laws were being abolished, freedom of movement and speech was being realised and many other changes albeit to late in the opinion of many (myself included) were finally being instituted. The feeling of being sold out by their elected leaders was foremost in the minds of racial groups and this should have set the alarm bells ringing in these elected leaders minds, the transition process was never going to be easy or done to the complete satisfaction of any one racial group (at this stage I will not go into any detail as every citizen of SA has their own opinion of what should and should not have been done whether right or wrong).

The first “free and fair” elections were held in 1994 and the ANC was voted into power by an overwhelming majority (mainly due to the fact that its base of voters in terms of numbers far outweighed any other political party), thus the start of a new era in SA politics and government. A new constitution was adopted, a new national anthem penned, a new national flag unveiled and with the SA rugby team winning the 1995 World Cup things seemed on the exterior to be moving in the right direction, however the underling tension was palpable. Transformation was not happening fast enough for some and too fast for others, previously advantaged communities were still at an advantage and previously disadvantaged communities still at a disadvantage, the perceived rich were getting richer and the poor poorer, service delivery was slow and what had been promised pre-election was not being delivered. Once again tensions were beginning to build and the government could do little to appease the masses, those who had voted for them and those that had not. Trade unions were mobilising workers to strike for better wages, residents of the townships were protesting due to the lack of basic services and the brain drain was starting to have a negative effect on industry. Crime was on the up and the rand was on the down, government was under extreme pressure to perform and direct foreign investment was non-existent, the “rainbow nation” was beginning to show the signs of being a pipe dream, an all too a familiar scenario was starting to develop. By the late 2000’s early 2010’s things had reached an unprecedented level in SA, the global economic crisis had led to widespread retrenchments and business failures (even though SA was said to have weathered the storm better than most) strike action was more of a violent protest, cars and tyres were being burnt, roads were being barricaded, public and private property was being trashed and land invasions were becoming more and more frequent, the brain drain continued and crime was at an all time high. SA was under huge internal pressure and the government was refusing to acknowledge that they were not doing enough to deliver on promises made, they adopted the “ostrich approach” and buried their heads in the sand hoping that the problems would go away. “Much success had been achieved over the last 20 years” was the catch phrase of the day, “it is all apartheids fault” was the standard response when challenged by opposition parties on why transformation was not happening fast enough; the approach was more defensive than pro-active.

SA is now 20 years into being a democratic society and little or no progress has been made in redressing the atrocities of apartheid; jobs for pals, tenderpreneurs, corruption, fraud, the lack of accountability etc. is widespread. If anything the government has not learnt from the past, the wheel has turned and history is repeating itself!