Botha awakens the hero in us

South Africa has become an increasingly venal society, driven at the top by the urge to consume – bigger houses, bigger cars, more bling – and at the very bottom of the social pyramid, by the basic need to survive.

There seems, most of the time, to be precious little space for altruism, which is defined by the dictionary as “unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others”.

Most of us seem to regard our fellow human beings as either prey, or objects to be used and abused on our way to the top of the pile. We also don’t have much time for the sort of introspection required for appreciating the plight of others, because we ourselves are so busy blaming myriad people or institutions for our supposed awful situation.

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Yet, it is beyond heartening, it is uplifting, to read today’s story of Jan Botha, an ordinary man doing the extraordinary by putting his own life on the line to try to save workers trapped in a collapsing trench.

As a member of a Community Policing Forum (CPF) in Pretoria and member of other civic organisations, Botha is clearly someone who instinctively believes we all have a role to play in making our communities better.

It shouldn’t be only the job of the government to bring us the proverbial better life; we have to get involved, too. It shouldn’t only be the job of the rescue services to save men like those trapped in the trench… that was what motivated Botha and why he acted quickly and instinctively.

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Botha doesn’t call himself a hero. The rest of us might beg to differ on that. But his example goes beyond momentary bravery.

What Botha showed us, jumping into that trench, is that, when we think of others, we can discover the hero living within us.