Leaders must stop blaming colonisation for their failures

I often wonder how far our great political leaders will go with their constant referrals to ‘decolonising’ everything they can think of.

One thing is very apparent though: they live in the past and have no vision for a bright and prosperous future for our people.

They have also turned it into a populist weapon to appeal to those they have betrayed and forgotten about –
merely to regain their support.

Our government embarked on a silent but steady process of decolonisation some years ago already and look where we are now…

History has taught us there is no country that was not colonised. Other once-colonised countries have come to terms with the past and accept that what happened cannot unhappen.

They took the good and discarded the bad. They don’t carry a chip on their shoulders.

But not so our leaders…

They need something or someone to blame for their constant failures. Perhaps they should start blaming the current state of our once great country on the likes of Julius Ceasar, or maybe Ghengis Kahn, or perhaps even Adolf Hitler.

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Let there be no doubt, the colonisers also brought a unique set of problems with them and not everything they did or brought was good.

Build on colonisation

We should look to the good they brought and improve on it. The bad should be rejected and thrown into the rubbish bin. After all, that is what previously colonised nations did.

That is, after all, how progress works.

The colonisers brought us brick and cement homes, tarred roads, rail and communications networks, high-rise buildings, an international educational system, cars, modern clothing, banking systems, modern technology, modern medicines, air travel, and more.

Ironically, our leaders arrive at venues that were either built by the colonisers, or, according to their plans, in cars designed by colonisers, wearing clothes designed by colonisers and dripping with jewellery made by colonisers.

And they then criticise the colonisers and preach decolonisation. Must everything the colonisers brought us be immediately removed or banned?

Or must we rather embark on a process of hypocritical decolonisation? If there were tablets for stupidity, some of our esteemed leaders would need to constantly be taking their tablets.

In similar vein, not everything our government has done can be construed as good. In fact, the government has successfully destroyed or stolen much of what they inherited.

The government has created a sense of despondency and anger that will be difficult to manage, regardless of what new slogan they invent.

It is, therefore, very disingenuous for our government to blame the collapse of our national infrastructure on colonisation.

Nor can they blame the mess our economy is in on at venues that were either built by the colonisers, or, according to their plans, in cars designed by colonisers, wearing clothes designed by colonisers and dripping with jewellery made by colonisers.

And they then criticise the colonisers and preach decolonisation.

Erasing colonisation

Must everything the colonisers brought us be immediately removed or banned? Or must we rather embark on a process of hypocritical decolonisation?

If there were tablets for stupidity, some of our esteemed leaders would need to constantly be taking their tablets. In a similar vein, not everything our government has done can be construed as good.

In fact, the government has successfully destroyed or stolen much of what they inherited.

The government has created a sense of despondency and anger that will be difficult to manage, regardless of what new slogan they invent.

It is, therefore, very disingenuous for our government to blame the collapse of our national infrastructure on colonisation.

Nor can they blame the mess our economy is in on colonisation. The great sea of poverty many of our people are drowning in is not the fault of colonialism.

But incompetence and consistent failure needs a blaming factor, not to mention corruption. And who better than the era of colonisation?

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Besides, why do our leaders, now that they have stolen everything they could, approach our once-colonisers and beg for more money to steal?

Is this why the beggars’ bowl is now held out to the neo-colonisers? Do they not realise that their deception and greed has been exposed for all to see?

Any sign of personal progress is viewed as having a colonised mind. This stupidity beggars belief.

Decolonising Eskom and Parliament

Could it be that the burning down of our parliament was just another attempt at decolonisation?

Are they decolonising Eskom and taking us back to the era of fires in our homes? Was the recent verbal attack on our constitution by a serving minister an attempt at decolonising it?

Is the lack of maintenance of our roads an attempt to move away from tarred roads and go back to dirt tracks?

Progress requires we learn from history, along with our past mistakes. Doing the same disastrous thing over and over again and hoping for a better outcome is the height of idiocy.

Yet, this seems to be the path our government has embarked on. In effect, it makes us all idiots as that is what we voted for.

Dragging us back into the past serves no purpose whatsoever.

Blaming the constitution for the mess the country is in is disingenuous as it shows a total denial of the failure they have driven the country into over the past 27 years.

But the question remains: just how far are our great leaders willing to go with their populist approach to decolonisation?

Are they going to hand the entire country over to the Khoisan who claim they were here first and were then colonised by other African tribes?

Or are they going to apply hypocritical and selective decolonisation so they can keep their designer suits, their grand vehicles and palatial homes?