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Opinionista

Do not let our democracy go gentle into that good night…

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Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar was born in Cape Town and raised by his determined mother, grandparents, aunt and the rest of his maternal family. He is an admitted attorney (formerly of the corporate hue), with recent exposure in the public sector, and is currently working on transport and infrastructure projects. He is a Mandela Washington Fellow, a Mandela Rhodes Scholar, and a WEF Global Shaper. He had a brief stint in the contemporary party politic environment working for Mamphela Ramphele as Agang CEO and chief-of-staff; he found the experience a deeply educational one.

This week beckoned in 21 years of democracy since that august day of 27 April 1994. South Africans marked it in different ways; for some there was a great deal of festivity and hopefully reflection and for others it was just another public holiday. It should be a day about hope and our collective commitment to making sure we continue to build on the values of our Constitution.

In our 21 years as a democracy, we have been able to enact the Constitution and begin to build democratic institutions with much vigour. We have faltered at times, and we have also made many mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes have been devastating. It is for those reasons that we must guard against the risks of complacency and acceptance. This project is far too big for South Africans to simply cede control in toto to our leaders – it requires all of us to get involved.

We must remind ourselves that now is the time for us to look inwardly in order to figure out how best to correct those mistakes and forge ahead as a nation and not to continue living and operating in isolated silos or islands.

In 1951, Dylan Thomas penned the words “(r)age, rage against the dying of the night” in his poem ‘Do not go gentle into that Good Night’. The words are an apt way to reflect on the state of South Africa.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Outrage has its place in the world. After all, it is through rage that we are able to attract attention and interest in order to give life to a movement. But that rage in itself is destructive and unpredictable. Only the hard work of constant vigilance and the knowledge of context and history can achieve the outcome of what we really desire.

The creep of mediocrity, corruption, disingenuous leadership and lip service did not simply arrive today but rather it has systematically been cultivated over years in the South Africa we call home.

This did not simply start with the ring of populism, or the ascension of President Jacob Zuma or by our disinterest in the growing inequality that pervades our society. All of this started long before that and the sad truth is that it all happened on our watch. The dying of the light happened before our very eyes and instead of raging against the darkness we have whimpered under the weight of its inevitability. We opted to disengage; we opted to not get involved, and worst of all we have stopped engaging in our democracy with vigour and excitement. We simply find it all too exhausting, messy and ugly.

The issues we are faced with today are troublesome and many, from the litany of corruption charges that hang over Zuma to the dysfunction at the National Prosecuting Authority or Eskom or PetroSA or the SABC or the South African Police Services and even at the South African Revenue Services.

We are troubled by the sluggish or lacklustre growth in our economy and more recently we were shocked by the xenophobic attacks and hatred that bubbles under the surface of South African society. Ultimately we are disappointed and shocked by the inability of our leaders to meaningfully deal with and answer the issues of the day. We have lost faith in the system. We have forgotten that we make the system.

The problems are many and they do tend to overwhelm. They tend to garner our attention, at least for a while, but then they fade away into the dark of the night. We need only look at the Gupta plane landing at Waterkloof as an illustration of how there seem to be no real consequences for anything bad that happens.

Instead of vigilance, instead of raging against the darkness, we have been happy to accept the lip service offered by our leaders. That lip service is orchestrated with great skill and it is always articulated with just the right dose of indignation and somehow given to us to soothe us and make us forget about the bad.

The lip service is always measured, it is delivered with just the right dose, and somehow for a time we are happy until the next scandal breaks of course. We go to the streets, we go vent on talk radio and in newspaper columns but we never really find a resolution – we are lost in our own wave of uncertain and imperfect outrage.

The fundamental question that we must ask is whether we are even considering our own agency in all of this chaos. Are we as South Africans really raging against the dying of the light or are we simply getting lost in the ‘inevitability’?

Our ability to make choices and to be aware of those choices is an important distinction. We are not simply puppets or actors in the game but rather we are the custodians of this democracy – we have to make it work.

Those external forces are powerful and it is true that they shape the space we are in but we have to claim it back. We cannot be content with mediocrity or the disingenuous poppycock anymore. We can’t continue to think that we are at the whim and fancy of a few. Surely this is not what our democracy is about?

We must rage against the current game of politics and leadership in South Africa.

The South African power dynamic is now about harvesting and cultivating fear; it has become about violence, and about letting the worst and not the best come to the surface.

We must struggle against this ‘othering that is taking place in our country. We must struggle once more for a better life for all South Africans. We must use the values enshrined in our Constitution and continue at all costs to rage against the coming of the night.

We are better than this and we must make sure our leaders are reminded that we are done being spectators in their game. We are finally taking up the role we were all born for – we are ready to lead. DM

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