OPINION

Today I want to highlight a plight we all facing in Mzantsi. Firstly, I want to state categorically that you may not agree with my sentiments but hey everyone is open to their opinion and not to say mine are more powerful than yours.

As you know we ushered our democracy through negotiated settlement and there were bound to be compromises. With all the compromises one needed to always keep checks and balances as to how far these were going to impact on our lives. We are getting closer to a third decade of our so-called rainbow nation and if I look around I find the country hypocritically living a lie. Yes we are living double standard lives because if we seriously look into what our democracy has brought to our lives. I may sound pessimistic but I challenge you to look around your areas and tell me if this is what we struggled for.

I know politicians will have field day with my assertions but hey I feel the pain. The lie of pretending that everything is fine in our country is adding to stressful lives we live in. I thought by now that our fortunes as previously disadvantage masses would have changed for the better but all I see is misery instilled on every face. Our places of work have become havens of inequalities and our people experiencing some of the worst forms of castigation. Where are the strides that employment equity supposed to have delivered? Instead the reverse is shaping in these companies.

The recent march by white farmers in our cities is clear indication that they are living in some country far away from Mzantsi. They still hanging on and believe in the old state or feeling that they are superior. It is shame. We in Mzantsi should understand that there are areas which are no go areas for Blacks. We face a scourge of crime in our country and there are many factors to this and the government structures not just the police should look into.

Mzantsi people need to free themselves from the shackles of living a lie and start speaking out and making sure that they address issues affecting them and not pretend that they will just disappear. The lie or pretence we have embraced is surely making a mockery of what a free people should be. Let us try and speak out against any threat that seeks to undermine our wellbeing because if we do that we will never realize the meaning of true democracy. Or is this what we fought for?

I am no politician but voicing my pain while watching our black brothers and sisters still enduring the same treatment if not worse than when we were ruled by iron fist.