Pause, think and act - Lessons from SA protests

Regardless of whether you think South Africa’s current mood is pro-ex or anti-incumbent, or the other way round, if you had a reliable mood-metre, and were asked to gauge SA’s national zeitgeist, which side do you think the needle will point? To the mellowed underwhelming, celebratory contagious or introspectively downbeat end?

After seeing looters engaging in unimaginable and ludicrous derring-do, such as dragging furniture, fridges and luxury TVs on the ground, and the apparent psychotic glee in their eyes, you may be pardoned for thinking that nothing quite warms the cockles of a South African heart than being an anarchist. What do you discern from the drift of the national dialogue? What do the video clips on the widespread looting do to you? Do they tear your heart apart or make it swell with happiness?

As your eyes were glued to the TV monitor or some electronic gadget, did you hear echoes of fixation to decades of white privilege and the intractability of inequality, social deprivation, economic hardship, untold pain and suffering? Are you among the hordes of individuals who are firmly clutching to the dogma of finger-pointing, liberally demonising and scapegoating Zuma or Zondo as the principal architects of the mayhem? Are you felicitously living in catatonic denial, tired of collateral toxic nostalgia and blacks always capitalising on injustices of the past, forever prattling on about the wickedness of Jan Van Riebeeck and Hendrik Verwoerd while conveniently forgetting that for the last three decades, they have been clutching at the steering wheel of the rainbow land of equal opportunities? Are you tempted to throw in a moral dimension into the mix, thus only seeing graphic acts of deliberate insanity, unjustified crime, conscious overindulgence and improprietous thuggery? Or do you dismiss all the criminal activities as welcome acts of temporary redistribution of ‘wealth’ to the underprivileged masses?

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

Have a Story? Send Us a tip
arrow up