Every election cycle, we seem to be obsessed with the idea that a weakening governing party and the rise of either a labour-led political party or the changing political landscape is the answer to the problems that South Africa faces.

However, too much emphasis is being placed on the actors of this old play. In the process, we have forgotten our own role in our democracy as well as the role we should be playing in shaping the South Africa that we want but also that we require.

We should look inward, and look forward to the country that we want to live in. We must consider what we want stand for so that we are able to guard against the temptation of expediency and more rhetoric.

The glory days of yesteryear are gone and we need to start getting on with building the country that we want to stand for and be. The time for plans and grand gestures have come and gone and we now need to coalesce around the broad vision of making South Africa more equitable, prosperous, fair and just.

We can no longer rely on these momentous occasions such as the 1994 election or the 2010 World Cup as the heralding call for us all to stand together. South Africa, like many other nations, is able to stand together when it is needed to do so. We need to put in a greater amount of effort into beginning to define who we want to be as opposed to simply defining everything by the same tried and tested methods. We can be better than that and we are better than that.

We cannot simply sing (and for some simply lip-sync) the words to our national anthem on 27 April or at sporting fixtures. We must actually answer that call instead of simply observing those words on certain occasions. The call is for all of us to put our shoulder to the wheel. The call must be to begin defining the country that we want to live in. We can’t simply refer to the 1976 generation or any other cohort of leaders that made the difficult choice to answer that call. We must start leading instead of simply trying to relive the days where South Africans, from all walks of life, took the risk.

To paraphrase simply, each generation has a choice to make. It is a choice between fulfilling that destiny or simply of failing to answer that call to action. The stakes are indeed high and the risks of letting hollow men and women lead the way are not going to save us. There is no one alive today or yet to be born who will save us from the predicament that we have found ourselves in. We cannot simply buy into the idea that one man or woman is all that we need. The time for saviours is long gone. We need to secure the future of our country together.

The task ahead of shaping who we are as South Africans, who we are as a nation and what we are proud of has not yet been formulated. We have seen that glimmer of something good in the moments where we have been forced to make difficult choices such as after the assassination of Chris Hani or the massacre at Marikana.

Marikana is a moment in which we should have been angrier; we should have been more united to coalesce around the idea that we should demand change immediately. Instead, Marikana has highlighted just how frustrating the system is and how difficult justice is to attain. We are still so many years later now fighting over the Marikana Commission report, which the President still considers while justice remains elusive.

The fight against e-tolls in Gauteng has highlighted other good traits, traits that remind us that the back pocket still does matter and it can spur people into action. It is a reminder that we can collectively stand up and resist a system that we deem unacceptable. We must continue to stand up against the injustice but we must also begin to do more than simply protest.

We cannot simply be a nation of protest; we must be a nation of builders, of carpenters, of planners, of those who do, of those who get their hands dirty and of those who want to build a country for all who live in it.

The task of doing this is not easy. We cannot look to our political leaders alone to drive this agenda unfortunately. Many of them are driven simply by their own ambition or by the numbers on Election Day and the desperate need to continue increasing their share of the vote.

We need South Africans, as we have had before, to stand up and be accounted for. We need South Africans in their own way to lead. To a large extent, we have accepted that leadership is something special, we have accepted that not everyone can be a leader but we forget that each of us is required to lead in some way and in some moment in our own lives.

The moment for collective, considered and sensible leadership is now. It must be directed beyond just protesting and objecting but it must be moved into spaces where we will fill the gaps that exist within our society. We have seen small groups of South Africans step into that space before and we will continue to see them do so.

We have been inspired by the Victoria Mxenge Housing Development Association, Section27, the Treatment Action Campaign and the Right2Know, amongst many brave and resolute South Africans who have chosen to make a meaningful contribution. We have seen brave and resolute South Africans defy all odds and say that they demand more but that they are willing to fight for that better life for all.

We have seen South Africans, in all their splendid sounds and colours, express solidarity with those who are downtrodden or oppressed or even harmed on our own soil. We have always been better than this.

There is no time to wait, there is no time to simply talk about these things but rather we must begin to answer our own call to action – we cannot afford to fail.

Destiny has given us this opportunity and we must do everything, in our own way, to secure the future South Africa that does indeed serve and is able to proudly stand tall amongst the family of nations. DM