The tragedy of our dilemma — apart from the thieving, thuggery, greed and general lawlessness — is that we are missing a golden opportunity to show how democracy, when properly applied, is supposed to work to serve the needs of society.
No system is perfect, but there should have been a marked improvement in people’s lives and the general state of the country.
Instead there's a lamentable failure all round. And many are beginning to blame democracy for their woes, looking desirously to the past. Out of the frying pan into the fire, they seem to think.
A state of utter hopelessness pervades the country like never before. One has to go back to the height of the unrest in the 1980s — the state of emergency that gave licence to detentions, torture and killings — to find a similar kind of despair.
But at the time, hope was our currency. There was hope that things would change for the better; that sacrifices were not in vain and that a better society was just around the corner.
Yes, that there would one day be democracy. And that our leaders, who walked on water, would take us to the land of milk and honey. But after almost three decades of democracy, people aren’t so sure anymore.
What they see and experience is completely different from what they've been promised. Their nirvana has turned out to be a mirage. “Is this what we fought for?” has become a constant refrain.
What is seen as democracy has caused some people to want to turn their backs on it or to cast around for alternatives. Some even find dictatorship an alluring prospect, which may explain why a murderous lunatic like Vladimir Putin is such a drawcard.
There’s even a hankering after the past, and (horror of horrors) democracy is unfavourably being compared with apartheid.
In other words, some would rather go back to the tyranny of apartheid than swank in our constitutional paradise. Such a comparison is incomprehensible and offensive, even subversive.
That would be like comparing light and darkness, even though darkness has now become our constant companion.
The short answer is: it depends on where you’re sitting right now compared with where you were sitting in the past; or where, in the past, you were hoping to be sitting now. It’s not a black or white thing, so to speak. There are many shades of grey.
Obviously, apartheid’s demise has largely taken race out of the equation in that it’s no longer part of or central to the legal infrastructure. But our experience of our brand new democracy has not been the same. Not exactly Animal Farm, but some are more equal than others.
Their nirvana has turned out to be a mirage. 'Is this what we fought for?' has become a constant refrain.
No question apartheid was horrible, grotesque, inhumane and, as a society, we’re all the better for its demise.
But those who’ve made hay in the new dispensation are a minority; the vast majority still wallow in poverty.
And so if you have a job, nice house, nice car, children in private schools, you certainly can’t complain.
Some even go on holidays abroad, visiting Macy’s, or Harrods, coming back with the branded shopping bags to flaunt. Some have never had it so good. The system has been a godsend.
But if you have to jump over puddles of sewage before you can get to your shack, with no job, no medicine at the clinic, you are unlikely to be amused by somebody telling you to just chill because you’re better off than you would have been under apartheid.
The apartheid-was-worse tag-line is now passé. Let’s retire it. People don’t expect democracy to be a mere adornment ... best constitution in the world, and all that. They want it to work for them, to see an improvement in their lives.
In a way, the system has created a new form of apartheid: those who’ve done fabulously well, and those who’ve got the short end of the stick. And it’s often those who’ve made it who seem offended by the comparison, and thus tend to be smugly dismissive of other people’s lived experiences.
I’m all right, Jack, that’s what they seem to be saying. But freedom has given everyone the right to think even subversive thoughts, and to be able to express them.
Besides, to the majority of young people, apartheid is what they read about in history books. They have no experience of it. All they want is for things to work.
The rolling blackouts seem to have even put out the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel
But the fact that people can even contemplate the reimposition of an oppressive system — a bit like an ex-slave yearning for the plantation days — is a terrible indictment of the appalling manner in which the ANC has mismanaged the country.
The grime, corruption, wanton destruction and lawlessness that seem to pass for political contestation are giving people pause. The rolling blackouts seem to have even put out the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
Remember the shock when, after PW Botha’s Rubicon speech, the currency plunged to R3 to the dollar. It’s now almost hugging R20/$. It’s been a steady decline, not exactly what we signed up for.
Even Jacob Zuma, crooked and corrupt as he was, is now seen by some as a much better leader — at least he could take decisions — than the jellyfish we now have. People’s perspectives tend to change — becoming more forgiving — with the passage of time.
In a way, the ANC has brought democracy into disrepute. It has given it a bad name. As a result, our society, new to democracy, has no idea how, when it is applied properly, it would feel or taste like. Because, for many, misery has been their only harvest.
But the system is not to blame, and there’s therefore no need to change it, or hanker after the past. It is the grifters and charlatans in power who should be booted out. And that ultimately is up to the voters.
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