EDITOR – With all the tension building up to the “vote of no confidence” parliamentary debate, the masses of the people for whom parliament exists by virtue of their vote are left confused by the mixed signals coming from various political formations and even civil society.
Former President Mbeki commented last week: “Members of parliament are the voice of the people of South Africa and must not act as the voice of their own political parties.” Other very notable and respected ANC MPs like Dr M Khoza, have added their voice, which appears for the first time that there has been a group of independent and free thinking MPs, who seem to be moving away from just being blindly loyal group thinkers and have formed their own views on this very significant chapter in our short democratic history.
But if all fails as happened so many times previously, when similar motions were brought to parliament, then one has to go back to the scriptures to seek salvation. As South Africans are a bit down after taking in the very heavy subject matter of the consequential cabinet re-shuffle and the S&P downgrades to junk status. As South Africans we feel that our beloved and beautiful country is spiralling out of control and doom is on the march, a reading of Psalm 37 may restore some hope that goodness and sanity will prevail:
“The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for He knows their day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are righteous. But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.”
When average citizens begin to feel like society is slipping out of their grasp – thanks largely to weak, out-of-touch leadership – desperation can creep in. With that desperation comes a hunger for a voice – any voice that articulates the frustrations of the people. History shows that failure to embrace a political leader for the right reasons often ends in disaster.
The ordinary citizen must be informed that the common denominator in this whole saga that led to the re-shuffle and the consequential downgrade to junk status is the R3 trillion nuclear deal that needs to be processed – that is the proverbial “gun” being held to President Zuma’s head.
Sicario
Durban
