April 27th - Celebrating Freedom

We just had our fourth free and fair election in South Africa, fifteen years of rule by the ANC, to be continued for at least the next five years and probably for longer still. It was with irony that I read the notice in a well known store that they will be open from 9:00 till 17:00 on the 27th of April, the day this nation will celebrate equality and freedom for all.

One A4 paper summarizing democracy in SA.

White collar workers will be resting; blue collar workers will be working. Freedom was built on the backs of the unemployed and the semi skilled however; the fruits of equal opportunity are enjoyed by the skilled, the educated and the employed. Indeed, a very small percentage of our population. Political freedom has not been translated into personal freedom from the shackles of poverty. Public service delivery is at a stand still. Doctors are striking and toy toying in the streets for better working conditions and higher salaries, our educational system has all but disintegrated. Various towns are suing their local municipalities for breach of contract and are refusing to pay levies and taxes to the local authorities; instead they are setting up trust funds and taking the responsibility on themselves.

The ruling party remains at the steer of our country with the new president having a huge following under the rural people and the unemployed. All eyes are focused to see what will happen next. A charismatic criminal is at the steer of our democracy. Which way will he take us? The optimists feel that his criminal past is no worse than that of any other politician and that we should not overlook the laureate received for peacekeeping, his focus on family and children. His grassroots approach to politics. He has none of the credentials of Mbeki but he is the father of many (a criticism often leveled at our previous president, that he was too academic and did not care about ‘his children’), his number of wives a close kept secret. But monogamy is a western approach and all his marriages are legal under traditional law and an accepted practice in his culture.

I think the next couple of years will be interesting for this little country. South Africa might be on the southern tip of Africa but with the right leadership, we could be a giant in the making. This country has given birth to numerous international thought leaders, we are rich in resources (mineral, cultural and human talent) and with the hosting of the soccer world cup next year we are being ushered into the lime light. Tourism has steadily increased over the last couple of years and with the global economic slump, a significant number of South Africans are returning home, as our economy has largely been protected, with skilled people in short supply.