It may be a new year but the resolutions are old. They’re the same this year as they were last year and the year before. And somehow we never implement them. That initial verve and vigour to go to the gym to get rid of that stubborn potbelly and the tyre around the girth will probably falter in the end; as will the determination to buy a new home or car.
For most South Africans 2024 will be more of the same daily grind to survive — looking for that elusive job or a morsel to eat — a fate bequeathed to them by the ANC.
We look back with utter disappointment at three decades of nothing but a horrid harvest of poverty and depravity. If 1994 was a bridge to a bright future full of promise — crossing our own River Jordan — we’ve landed not in Canaan but in Hades. We descended into a little hell of our own. Hopes have been dashed, dreams and aspirations have gone up in smoke. We were destined to soar; instead we came down with a thud. Such high-minded optimism, so cruelly crushed.
We need to keep reminding ourselves of one cardinal fact: the ANC didn’t impose itself on us. We put it where it is
We now have the opportunity to reverse our fortunes. This year’s election marks a fork in the road, a defining moment and a watershed that will determine our fate for generations to come.
Our new year resolution should surely be to give the ANC a bloody nose. It has done so much damage that even the party itself is struggling to make a cogent case for why it should be re-elected. It should be expelled from power. This country can never hope to get out of this predicament or see any progress with the ANC still at the helm.
There was a time when even the politically neutral thought getting rid of the ANC would be a disaster; that it was the glue that held the country together. Not any more. It’s the cancer eating into the country’s innards. As Oliver Cromwell told the Rump parliament in 1653: “You were here deputed by the people to get grievances redressed, [but] are yourselves the greatest grievance.”
Apart from the looting and the dishonesty, think of the heartache, stress and depression the ANC has caused. It literally makes us sick. It should be consigned to the wilderness where, between licking its wounds, it would have the space and serenity to reflect and hopefully mend its ways. But chances are the ANC out of power will probably splinter and die, and that won’t be a bad thing.
Those who still cling to the fiction that the problems were all Jacob Zuma’s doing, and that the organisation will somehow still undergo a Damascene conversion now that he is gone, conveniently forget that it was the ANC that vested so much power in this ignorant palooka, and stoutly defended him in the face of serious allegations of impropriety.
And Zuma’s erstwhile defenders now want us to believe they can rescue us from the mess they created. They must think we’re thick-headed. Zuma is a creature of the ANC. He’s ANC, and he probably won’t leave it even as he scornfully declares his intention to vote for another party. There is at least some amusement in seeing him bite the hand that’s fed him all his life. Which just goes to show he was never in it for the principle, but for the gravy.
If Zuma is the pits, his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, is no better. His presidency has been six years of unremitting darkness and gloom. Crime is soaring; unemployment is up; and the cost of living keeps rising. Everything is going up except the currency and the standard of living, which are going in the opposite direction.
And now that blackouts are back with a vengeance, some cretin at Eskom releases a statement telling us to be grateful for the 18 days of uninterrupted electricity we’ve “enjoyed” during the festive season. Apparently we should be coming out into the streets to celebrate and applaud mediocrity. It just goes to show the terrible state we are in.
Amid the suffering inflicted by his government on society, Ramaphosa often speaks as though we’re all having a good time. His demeanour is not that of a man in a hurry to do anything. Too laid back, as though the country isn’t on fire; and too ready to smile, as if mocking those who are having a hard time.
As we wallow in despair, we need to keep reminding ourselves of one cardinal fact: the ANC didn’t impose itself on us. We put it where it is. It gratefully accepted power with both hands, and went on a wholesale rampage of thieving and plundering. And we’ve kept returning the party to office despite ample evidence of wrongdoing. We evidently have a liking for what it’s doing.
The usual modus operandi of dictatorships is to lock up the opposition, ban the independent media and emasculate the judiciary. In South Africa, on the other hand, we have repeatedly voted our tormentors into power in elections considered free and fair. It is by our own hand that we have inflicted such pain on ourselves.
It seems as though the juggernaut is at last about to get its comeuppance. But it won’t be easy to dislodge a party enjoying all the advantages of incumbency. The ANC has another weapon in its armoury. When all else fails, it can unleash the devastating power of the food parcel.
Now is the time to redeem ourselves. Will we grab the chance? Or is that still a bridge too far?
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