In the State of the Nation Address, delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa, he said the following: “We will celebrate the triumph of freedom over subjugation, the triumph of democracy over racial tyranny, the triumph of hope over despair.”
For those who listened to the address, right from the start one was almost filled with a sense of hope and a rousing triumph that we can overcome the calamity of our economy and we can overcome the dark tides of corruption.
Around page 24 or so of the speech, the President mentions the following: “But we will not surrender to the forces of pessimism and defeatism”.
For one moment, detaching yourself from reality and transporting yourself to the Tolkien’ Middle Earth, you could have imagined listening to the great Churchill when he uttered the following famous words while facing the threat of Germany:
“We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
The rest is history, Britain never surrendered and Hitler’s mighty Germany was defeated.
For one moment there were echoes of Obama’s “yes we can” rhetoric in the address.
And so, we can all enjoy our flights of fantasy, for sadly, Ramaphosa is no Churchill or an Obama, for not long after the mighty State of the Nation Address, the nation was plunged into darkness.
And all because of Eskom.
This is is despite during his address that Ramaphosa vowed to rescue the ailing state power utility by providing it with financial support and splitting it into three entities after it suffered massive losses and piled on debt.
News soon also filtered through that by the power utility will be insolvent by April, and once again the President spoke to the nation, saying “not to panic and that all will be ok.”
This news came at the same time that economists warned that by the 2019 South Africa will most probably be in a recession.
So yes, hello darkness my old friend is indeed upon us again. For Eskom’s meltdown costs the country billions in productivity.
All of this calamity prompted Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to announce a nine-point plan for bringing Eskom back from the brink of collapse.
But this will cost a lot of money, therefore our money as the burdened taxpayer. So excuse me for not being too optimistic and allowing pessimism to cloud our judgment, considering Eskom probably needs a R100-billion bail-out.
By the way, who else laughed when they heard that Eskom had ‘lost’ six generating units when the load-shedding first kicked in? Were these generators physically lost, maybe stolen, or were they also transported to another time of dinosaurs?
It was also comical that the President was left dismayed at the sudden meltdown of Eskom because let us be honest, it happened very quickly without any warning signs.
But we the people were not left shocked. What else do you expect from Eskom?
And despite the President’s plan, he has to deal with the marching army of Cosatu that is demanding no job losses, despite Eskom blessing profusely. Go figure.
Yes, I’m sure all of us will want to continue to fight with growing confidence and growing strength, not surrendering to the forces of pessimism and defeatism, but really Mr President, times are just getting tougher.
I’m sure in the days of Churchill the people could hold onto the hope of possible victory, despite the bombs falling, but I wonder if the people of South Africa can find hope in the midst of all the empty promises.
All the while, the bombs of corruption, rocketing living costs and power outages keep exploding around us.
At least in the days of WWII the people of Churchill knew who the enemy was. We can hardly say the same, for is it people, or the system, or simply the curse of pessimism?
We are called not to surrender. So how does this apply when criminals loot our homes, or when traffic backs up to Durban?
Yes, Mr President, we shall guard against pessimism, but then we need to know, somehow, that defeat is not inevitable. For then we shall not go quietly into the night, even when the power goes out.
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