Publications
Partners
Over the last few years, my sense is that mob mentality or lowest common denominator thinking has taken root in South Africa and is growing ever stronger. By way of example:
The ANC rallying around Jacob Zuma and defending the indefensible including the Nkandla scandal and his highly questionable behaviour the lead to his rape trial.
Protest marches that take place at ever increasing frequency and over what are generally trivial matters, exacerbated by the boorish behaviour prevalent during these marches.
Wildcat strikes with intimidation, vandalism and general hooliganism being the standard.
Communities holding the education of their OWN children to ransom in exchange for service delivery in Kuruman.
Students boycotting class at Medunsa because (gasp) the university decided to fail students that didn’t make the grade.
Etc, etc and so on to the point of tears!
I feel like I must be crazy because this kind of thing is being tolerated! This is madness! I am calling for an attitude adjustment. To Mr Average Joe, “Stop worrying so much about your rights and start considering your responsibilities!” Stop behaving like a petulant child every time you don’t get what you want. If you fail a test or an exam, accept the hard to swallow truth that you did not succeed, pick yourself up and work harder to pass. If you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, at the very LEAST you should offer a grovelling apology. I would argue that unless there are serious extenuating circumstances, this person should be suspended, the case investigated within a REASONABLE TIME FRAME and if the party is found guilty, he/she should be FIRED forthwith! And if this person was on paid suspension whilst being investigated, they should pay this money back too.
The problem starts at the top. The ANC is rotting from the president down and every day some or other scandal is uncovered only for the ANC collective to rally around their colleague and ensure that the repercussions of this person’s dishonesty/incompetence/indifference is a slap on the wrist. It is therefore no wonder our citizens think they can get away with appalling behaviour. The child mimics the parent or in this case, the citizens mimic their leaders. The standard of leadership in South Africa is awful and getting worse by the day. What we keep doing is when someone fails to meet the standard, we lower the standard! How do we stop this and reverse the trend?
I call for:
Appropriate repercussions for poor leadership. (This applies to our president too.)
Appropriate repercussions for breaking the law.
Swift justice so that the deed is SEEN to have repercussions.
An end to bending the rules.
- A deaf ear to excuses. If you screw up, there MUST BE (appropriate) consequences. DEAL WITH IT!
