DM168

Letter From The Editor

We are a beautiful country but political thugs are dragging us into the Dark Ages

We are a beautiful country but political thugs are dragging us into the Dark Ages
The N3 highway was reopened on 27 October 2021 after truck drivers protested against foreign nationals being employed. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

I am sick and tired of the greed, the incompetence, the corruption, the crime, the load shedding, the water shedding, the joy-and-sense-of-wonder shedding.

Dear DM168 readers,

There is a saying in my family whenever we have differences or disagreements: “You have to leave to re-enter.” It means that it helps to pause, take a deep breath, go for a walk and take a break to get some perspective. This pause de-escalates the pesky emotions and egos that trap us in spirals of anger, frustration, and hurt and turns off the competitive urge to only listen to respond, win or be right rather than hearing and understanding each other or fathoming what the underlying issues are actually about.

So it was that our family drove down the N3 to the south coast of KZN for our sons’ school holiday and to pause the “Have you done your homework? Have you practised your piano? Turn off your gadgets, be quiet I am on deadline,” vibe.

Waking up to the whales flicking their flukes on the Indian Ocean, body surfing and being dumped by huge warm curling waves, and hearing my sons’ shrieks of laughter as they wrestled each other in the water was priceless. We drove through the banana plantations and sugar cane fields of the south coast and explored the Oribi Gorge canyon, with its mist-laden crags that look like a perfect launch pad for the dragons the blue aliens connected with in Avatar.

Oribi Gorge

It was awesome. A much-needed break from our daily routines of school and work to experience the joy of being with each other and the wonder of exploring a beautiful part of our country. The bliss lasted until the morning we packed to return home when we discovered that three burglars attempted to break into our holiday rental at 1.04am when we were all fast asleep. They tried lifting the garage door with a crowbar. They broke the latch on a side gate. The CCTV cameras showed three figures peering through windows but unable to enter. We were fine. Safe. Saved by alarms and security gates. Nothing was taken. Relief.  A back-to-reality jolt about always being alert, however relaxed you are and never letting your guard down.

The next back-to-reality jolt was the first traffic jam on the N3 heading back to Gauteng. Trucks for Africa backed up wherever you looked. It dawned on me how our economy has been screwed by State Capture and the hollowing out of Transnet and our rail services. Cars manufactured in Pretoria, Durban and Gqeberha have to be transported by truck, ditto fruit, vegetables, meat and all imports which land in our harbours, (which, as Ray Mahlaka and Ed Stoddard write in this week’s paper, are under siege by the Transnet workers’ strike). Did the doyens of disaster who ruined Transnet, Eskom, SAA and the myriad other state-run enterprises ever think beyond their stomachs and bank balances about how their greed and incompetence are literally dragging us back in the Dark Ages? I guess not.

In this week’s lead story Estelle Ellis, Hoseya Jubase, and Victoria O’Regan write about yet another terrifying descent into the hell our democracy has become. The murder and attacks on local government councillors in the contestation for power and, let’s face it, for a hand in the almost empty drawer of our public cash register.

Dear readers, I admit this story is not a very uplifting return from my break with my family. But we cannot bury our heads in the sand and ignore the evil that is permeating every facet of our country wherever there are rands and cents to be grabbed. We need to know that not all South Africans are murderous and corrupt. But we also need to know that every good South African has to do whatever they can to stop this descent into hell.

More and more that lyric by the White Tie Affair “I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired” plays in my head like an earworm on an acid trip. I am sick and tired of the greed, the incompetence, the corruption, the crime, the load shedding, the water shedding, the joy-and-sense-of-wonder shedding.  I am sure you all feel the same. The thing is I really love this place. My country. Our country. Our South Africa. My family’s south coast holiday made me realise this more acutely. Because of this love, I am not prepared to give up the fight to expose the rot and the rotten. And to find many ways to leave and re-enter. Neither should you.

As always, please send your thoughts and reflections for the Readers’ page to [email protected]

 

Yours in defence of truth,

Heather

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available at retail outlets countrywide from Saturday 15 October to Friday 21 October for R25.

Gallery

Comments - Please in order to comment.

  • Beyond Fedup says:

    With so much potential and promise that this country has, especially since 1994 and the real possibility of a genuinely better life for all, it has been squandered by this evil, rapacious, predatory, thieving and corrupt cabal that is the ANC and its cronies. By far the decent majority of citizens must claim our country back – the useless, incompetent and parasitic ANC doesn’t own SA. They are way past their sell by date and have willingly betrayed all of us. They should be charged with treason and incarcerated for life!!!

    • virginia crawford says:

      The majority of are good people, but we are ruled by a criminal enterprise.

      • Malcolm McManus says:

        Sadly you are wrong. If this was true, the ANC wouldn’t be in power. They would have been voted out at least 20 years ago, and most senior ANC politicians would be in jail. The only way to get these barbarians out of power is to send them out, through the way they came in.

    • Jon Quirk says:

      Well said, Sergio – without the ANC and all the corruption it supports and demands, ordinary people have somehow managed to get on with their lives ….

  • Max Köhler says:

    A well written summary of our daily feelings of hope and despair

  • Johan Buys says:

    Heather, my head is in your place at the moment – gatvol. Gatvol for the obvious stuff but also gatvol for the responses. All around me there is no shortage of people bitching and moaning and shouting ill-considered solutions. From celebrity commentators to economists to ‘energy experts’. Privatize Eskom (it won’t happen). Get rid of the ANC (our opposition parties are doing their level best to frustrate this effort). Yes we are being squeezed. The answer is not empty tweets. Do something that actively reduces the scope of the government to make your life miserable. Africa is not for sissies. We have become a nation of moaning victims that deserve no better than we experience unless we “maak ‘n plan”. There was a song : clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. Except we are now thugs to the left of me victims to the right.

    • Paddy Ross says:

      All opposition parties are not “trying to frustrate this”. The DA demonstrates year on year that it has the interests of society in Cape Town and in the Western Cape. It recently formed coalitions which should still be functioning but have been sabotaged by overt corruption of the ANC and power hungry fringe political parties. They can not bear the thought that a DA led coalition would give the people municipal services run effectively.

      • Sam van Coller says:

        The continuous shedding of able Black leadership from the party, their inability to hold coalitions together and the arrogance and lack of understanding of South African history among their leadership all suggest to me that the DA has become an obstacle to the formation of an alternative government in opposition. As a DA supporter of many years, I feel deeply disappointed

      • Carsten Rasch says:

        So sick of hearing this sob story. The reality is that forming coalitions AFTER the fact invites exactly the kind of nonsense going on presently. And now, because our politicians are brats in a playpen, that door is probably closed too. We are going down the drain hole because most of our politicians are simply too self-interested for the job. There is not a single party I feel comfortable voting for. NOT ONE!

  • Russ H says:

    100% Heather !!

  • Roy Haines says:

    Maybe just maybe there is a little light at the end of the tunnel . Several years ago I asked our domestic who she would vote for in the next election, the answer was ”the ANC of course!”. Last week I posed the same question (this was in a serious bout of load shedding) and the answer was ”not the ANC”. The problem that SA now has is that there needs to be a viable alternative to the ANC and currently that just doesn’t exist.

  • Hermann Funk says:

    It is my believe that South Africans need to resort to much more than just expressing their disgust in words or letters. We need Iran-like demonstrations with the demand of a government of national unity manned by experts and true leaders.

  • Patterson Alan John says:

    All well said, but millions of words have been expressed in despair of the worsening situation.
    When you look at the plethora of political parties, competition for positions of power, wheeling and dealing and the stubborn consistency of the majority voting the ANC back into power time and again, irrespective of the on-going corruption and incompetence, how does one turn the ship in the right direction?
    We can all live in hope that the rational people will prevail, but not in my lifetime, if ever.
    I saw the future after living in Umtata for three years. That future has found its’ way into South Africa and the bright light that was South Africa, will soon become a flicker.
    I followed my head in 1992 and not my heart.
    Where I am now, the lights have always stayed on 24/7.

  • Helen Lachenicht says:

    Is there any possibility of a total tax revolt? Surely we have a right ?

    • Jane Crankshaw says:

      Agree whole heartedly but how do you get the majority and Corporates to agree? That’s the
      trouble…we are all clinging onto the hope that something will change…that the politically connected will stop stealing, thatCR will show some balls, that racist and destructive BEE policies will end, that our taxes actually go to making this a better country for all SouthAfricans…..I don’t think the minority has the courage to face reality and the majority has the education to see the road we are on…a tragedy in the making and the end of Mandela’s legacy. All that’s happened is we have proved that the Nats were better at running this country than the ANC which is a tragedy in itself.

      • Clyde Smith says:

        The Nats were better at running the country than the ANC? The only thing we know for sure is that a small minority of South Africans (white people) enjoyed a privileged lifestyle under the Nat government while the large majority of South Africans (black people) had a desperate time of it. The ANC has, to a limited degree, turned that around so that a small minority of South Africans (mostly black people) enjoy a hugely privileged lifestyle while a fair proportion of South Africans (black and white people) enjoy a moderate lifestyle and the large majority of South Africans (mostly black people) have a desperate time of it. The tragedy is that so many South Africans (mostly white people) want to return to the days when Eskom and SAA and Transnet worked for them only. I’m with Sam Van Coller – I don’t believe the DA are up to the task so I’m not sure where that leaves the beautiful country. Up a creek without a paddle? Where we can sit and admire the view until the boat sinks.

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