We look at the tragic events across our country’s university campuses with the hope that justice, fairness and equity will return. Instead, we are met with brutality and violence. Hope is not enough and predictably we are forced to deal with the defensive position of privilege, communication premised on a broken telephone and the equally frustrating response of ‘leadership’ that can best be described as robotic and callous.

Yet, we cling to the idea that people like Pravin Gordhan will be able to hold the line. The idea of the ‘rainbow’ is too intoxicating for many of us, but that generosity of spirit is lost in these difficult and tragic times and is inappropriate when all that Ubuntu has been misappropriated, misused and taken for granted. To pretend otherwise is to forget that injustice and inequality in South Africa actually has a human face. That human face remains predominantly (and unacceptably) black.

There have been suggestions, by many in our party political system, that South Africa is in need of an economic ‘CODESA’ to address inequality and the broken system. Instead of a considered view, we are met with political rhetoric. Recent commentary from Mr Zuma indicated that he believed there was no real point to this as he thought it would spiral into the usual political lines and that ultimately the ANC-majority would be decisive.

South Africa under the leadership of Mr Mandela and Mr Mbeki should have explained to South Africans why the negotiating parties took certain decisions. The failure to do so has meant that the compromises and flaws of the 1990s are now used to fuel a particular agenda. However, it is important to note that the CODESA process was far from the Cape Town picnic-style politics and a striking example of that is the day (20 December 1991) when Mr Mandela had the following to say after listening to the opening remarks of FW de Klerk:

“Even the head of an illegitimate, discredited, minority regime as his, has certain moral standards to uphold. He has no excuse, because he is a representative of a discredited regime, not to uphold moral standards”.

Gone are the days of compromise, negotiation and nation building. Today, everyone is only interested in their own agenda and the power of majoritarianism. Any hope of trust and goodwill has long evaporated. Whatever we may think of Mr Mandela, and the leaders that negotiated that transition, we must remember that, that generation of South Africans were able to respect pluralism, negotiation and discussion in the interest of the country. Today, we are too angry to engage meaningfully, which is understandable given the recent cycle of abuse that South Africans have had to endure.

We must remind each other that there is a human face to what is wrong in our society. It is not simply about economics, the Guptas, Mr Zuma, our university campuses, or about issues such as inequality, poverty or despair but rather it is about our shared humanity and the pain and suffering that so many mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and families have had to endure. Many South Africans, far too many still, continue to live in that cycle of abuse.

We only need to look at the story of Nokuthula Simelane (at the time 23), an Umkhonto we Sizwe operative, who was abducted and brutally tortured and killed 33 years ago by Apartheid police officers Willem Coetzee, Anton Pretorius and Frederick Mongo.

It is easy to forget this human face of tragedy. We are consumed by the political hatchet job, a collection of unfocussed phrases, infographics, bluster and talk. None of that will move South Africa forward especially when there is an obsession with macro issues, an obsessive culture focussed on Mr Zuma and the hot air from people like Gwede Mantashe and his colleagues, who spin stories of a plot by the American Ambassador (and his Government) of holding secret meetings and planning a coup d’état with Mandela Washington Fellows (disclaimer: I am one of those Fellows).

The story of Nokuthula Simelane has returned to the national stage after so many years as the National Prosecuting Authority have finally agreed to charge those Apartheid-era policemen for her murder. This is the betrayal that so many South Africans must shoulder. People like Ernestine Simelane, the mother of Nokuthula, embody resilience and strength and she does not seek revenge but rather wants the truth: “them going to jail will mean nothing for me … but I will forgive the truth”. DM