We are to blame for SA’s broken society

We have allowed our society to rot to incomprehensible standards.

In this file picture taken on July 17, 2015 an addict of the drug cocktail known locally as Nyaope (Nyope) prepares to inject himself with the drug in an abandoned building in Simuneye township on the outskirts of Johannesburg. More than two decades after the end of apartheid, South Africa’s youth hoped to be reaping the benefits of the country’s fresh start, but a potent drug is taking a heavy toll on the most vulnerable. AFP PHOTO/MUJAHID SAFODIEN

Sometimes, it has nothing to do with government. The breakdown of the South African family – black, white, coloured or Indian – is something that cannot be ignored.

If you have been following the Step In reality show for the past two weeks, you would be more than inclined to agree that there is a big problem in our country in terms of the breakdown of family units.

This leaves in its wake broken children who become broken adults who will raise more broken children.

The wheels of the bus go round and round. The truth is, men have become more oppressive while women are either fighting back too hard or not fighting back at all. Either way, there are no winners.

The family unit is suffering and unless we admit it to ourselves, we will only keep repeating the same mistakes.

We live in an age of psychologists, therapists, studies and tests – but we cannot seem to diagnose the problem and nip it in the bud. While we have all sorts of professionals who may attempt to remedy the problem, we have so many social ills that we first have to overcome.

HIV/Aids, drugs, human trafficking, the absence of parents, child-headed households, grandparents raising grandkids, blessers and blessees, the list is just endless.

While each generation had its own mountains to climb, at the present moment we seem to be battling with Mount Everest.

We need a new way to overcome these challenges and move past them, once and for all.

For a 21-year-old female to feel it necessary to prostitute herself to provide food for her and her family while her mother, who is fully capable of working, lives in the same house with a stepfather who violates the same children who feed this mother.

This is somehow the new normal? When a woman finds nothing wrong with staying with a man who rapes her daughters, there is a serious problem.

We have allowed our society to rot to incomprehensible standards. And sometimes we only have ourselves to blame.