Photographs: PG Human and Jacqueline Macou | Pixabay
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We’re a noisy democracy, and correctly so.
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South Africa today is a far better place than it was in 1984, 1994, and it will be an even better place in 2034.
We’re a noisy democracy, and correctly so. It’s easy in the daily ups and downs to get distracted by the latest scandal, to be depressed by how difficult life can be, and to lose sight of the progress we make.
While it is correct to hold politicians with a certain degree of scepticism and to expect much from government, it is equally important to cheer progress on when it happens.
South Africa has a very painful history, and at times we forget how far we have come.
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South Africa is a county alive with possibilities. Our setbacks are temporary.
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It seems like a different world from when we were at school in the 1980s and there was total segregation of life by race. In my white school I can remember the first African child who enrolled. I can’t imagine the kind of pressures he must have felt in a school that was more than 99% white.
I remember another African classmate needing to sleep in my room because it was too dangerous for him to cross military and police barricades in his township, as the government was violently suppressing young people protesting against apartheid.
One day I saw an African woman being assaulted. When I called the ambulance to come and help, they said if she was black they couldn’t help her.
My father was a journalist, who frequently spent time in police cells for reporting on the violence unleashed by the apartheid regime on ordinary South Africans.
I was fortunate to have a father who could make sure we did not become indoctrinated by the racism taught not only by government and at schools.
We had quite a few visits by the police to our home. Some of these were to send a warning to a journalist, while other visits were to plant listening devices or look for contact details of ANC underground operatives (the days of landlines and having to save numbers in handwritten phone books!).
Some comrades took to hiding in our house while on the run from the police.
The police did not take kindly to anyone who dared question the apartheid regime, and eventually my father was advised it best he leave the country, and that he do so quickly.
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The weather could not be any more different from South Africa’s sunny Karoo to the freezing winters in Moscow, where sunlight may be there for only four hours a day!
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I left some months after him to continue my education overseas. This new chapter in my life saw me spend four years in the then Soviet Union, plus time in other countries.
It was the most formative part of my education, and the memories have remained with me in so many ways.
The weather could not be any more different from South Africa’s sunny Karoo to the freezing winters in Moscow, where sunlight may be there for only four hours a day!
Besides the weather, several other aspects of life in the Soviet Union were a stark contrast and, unlike the weather, a welcome change.
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The Soviet Union was an eye-opener, with ordinary citizens having access to free health care and education at all levels, and subsidised public transport and housing.
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There was a small but vibrant South African ANC community in the Soviet Union, with students at various universities and military academies having opportunities for higher education they were denied in South Africa because of the colour of their skin.
Some of these students have risen to heights in their fields today, including current and former chiefs of the national defence force, army, air force and navy.
What was wonderful about this small ANC student community was how welcoming they were of me as a young white male and their passion and commitment to achieving a democratic non-racial South Africa.
It was amazing to see the international solidarity that not just the Soviet Union, but countries across the world were providing to the South African liberation movement, .
The Soviet Union was an eye-opener, with ordinary citizens having access to free health care and education at all levels, and subsidised public transport and housing.
All of us remember the moment when Nelson Mandela was released from prison and the ANC and other political parties were unbanned.
We were pained by the violence in the run-up to the 1994 elections.
None can forget election day in 1994 when millions got to vote for the first time. The entire nation was excited and optimistic about a chance to reset South Africa.
The Nelson Mandela years can be described as our honeymoon period. The Thabo Mbeki years built upon these and saw major achievements made rolling out access to electricity, water, sanitation, housing, schools, social grants, universities and roads to millions who not long before had never had such.
The less said about the Jacob Zuma years the better. The damage done during his time in office was immense and will take time to undo.
Cyril Ramaphosa has perhaps the most difficult tasks of any of our post-1994 presidents. It is natural to be impatient with the pace of change, but if one takes a step back, then the pace of efforts to clean South Africa becomes more noticeable, and even impressive.
Senior persons implicated in corruption are being brought before court; critical public services and organisations like SARS, the NPA, Eskom and Transnet are being rebuilt.
The level of despondency among the youth is concerning. Many feel no hope or sense of things improving for the better. Many are increasingly looking for lucrative employment overseas.
We are heading towards our most important elections since 1994.
While we all have different views on which political party is best placed to build South Africa, what is most important is for all of us, in particular young people, to vote, to participate in the discussions on what needs to be done, to stand for elections, whether it be at a school or for university SRCs, or to stand for a party in local elections or just participate in an NGO, a neighbourhood watch or join a trade union at their workplace.
Ultimately our challenges require all of us to contribute to solving them.
South Africa is a county alive with possibilities. Our setbacks are temporary. The future offers great opportunities; we just need to help make them happen.
Kommentaar
Good piece. History stems from the perceptions of the ordinary guy.