As a country we need to introspect at the end of this decade

As we draw closer to the end of another year, creeping closer to the moment of introspection, as a country we need to ask ourselves how good a year has this been.

Have we done the best we can with what we have? Have we continued to break barriers and reach higher levels of coming together as people, growing as a nation, and are we still serving as a beacon of hope for African countries that are yet to fully transition to democratic governance?

As a country that has come a long way from the days of apartheid, in 2019 what did we do to display our appreciation for the freedom we enjoy today?

Recent incidents of femicide and pedicide should leave us with our heads bowed and covered with a cloud of shame – that women in 2019 should fear a simple post office exchange, that in our time, our government was careless enough to employ someone who would one day brutally put to death a young woman in a government building – this could not be life.

The deaths of many unnamed women who were murdered in their numbers daily – could our country possibly be the most dangerous place for women to live as we continue to speak of the rights enshrined in our constitution. Can the rights of women in 2020 be discussed with the same amount of robust energy as shown in elective conferences?

After the explosion that was the xenophobic attacks, do we have a good story to tell?

How have we not defined this conversation a while back in order to avoid explosions like this in 2020? To have us reminded that the fight with the African brother or sister should be a fight of ideas and not of a violent nature. But did we ever define the attacks for what they are? We cannot learn anything if we are to label the root cause as something fictitious. Was this xenophobia? Did we label it correctly? Did we then address the correct problem correctly?

We then had that pot of overflowing corruption, of a government that considers the public purse a monthly allowance. While basic services are yet to impress, the grotesque display of ill-gotten gains by public officers leaves one feeling despondent.

While grannies are being tied to benches in waiting rooms of hospitals, while children are drowning in pit toilets, while children whose parents are determined to have them educated have to cross overflowing rivers to reach their schools in mud structures – our government members are lapping up every form of luxury … is this the freedom gains that Hani, Sobukwe, et al, died for? I will never understand how far the moral compass has turned, especially in the corridors of political power.

There is so much that we must continue to work on, while there are no immediate and tangible solutions. But these are conversations we must be having. What are the real gains of these unending commissions of inquiry, while we bleed money to have them. They are reactive. We need grass-roots solutions.

While there are many gains for us as South Africans to celebrate, the shadow of our failures far outweighs the gains. Going into a New Year, we have experienced the worst.

We know better – may we do better.

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