Government has acted like a spoiled brat and destroyed SA

The government seems to either truly misunderstand or overestimate their status: they were elected by the people to govern for the people.

They were never elected to own it, or steal it into bankruptcy. The ruling party was elected to take ownership of the government and to practise good governance to the benefit of all citizens.

Good governance requires sound strategies, coherent fiscal management policies and practices, decisive servant leadership, resources, national unity, and oversight.

People who suddenly find themselves owning something they never worked for don’t appreciate, nor look after, their sudden “possession”.

This belief has become very evident in SA where a government has acted like a spoiled brat and ruined and destroyed a country after taking possession of it.

It is, however, ownership of a government and not an entire country and its people and resources. It is, furthermore, an entrusted ownership and not one “for life”.

People who have worked for a possession or the trust of others ought to know everything comes with accountability and responsibilities.

It also requires a healthy dose of integrity. When the honour is trampled on and trust destroyed, the possession can be taken away.

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Insofar as integrity is concerned, our ruling party appear to have none. But honour and trust, like everything in life, is not free.

Acquiring these noble attributes requires hard work, integrity, faith and trust and once attained, require more work to cling to them.

Once shattered, honour, integrity and trust are not merely given back. People may forgive, but they seldom forget – especially when the leaders refuse to fix what they have broken, rubbished, and trampled on.

The possession of power that is in the hands of our government now rests in the hands of those they abused, marginalized, neglected, ignored, and driven to despair.

Having used their power for self-gain, the honourable overpaid ministers and their massive retinues may find themselves powerless, come the 2024 election.

No amount of militant populism, fake history, race baiting and laying blame should be allowed to save them from the damage they have inflicted on our nation and our people.

They have, through their abuse of their positions and the propagation of anger and marginalisation, driven us towards a civil war, or our own “South African Spring”, as I wrote in my piece of 24 May.

Using mafioso tactics, they have sought to entrench their power and redirect a once-thriving economy towards a socialist-inspired collapse of the state.

Not content with preaching “revolution” to achieve their goal, they challenge larger and more powerful states and side with pariah states.

Their lack of understanding of how the world works and the impact of geopolitics is truly astonishing and frightening. They live in a total disconnect with the grim reality of life they have inflicted on us all.

They have betrayed both South Africa and Africa and continually feed us new lies for old in the mistaken belief that we will again be deceived into voting for them. Words such as “progress”, “industrial revolution”, “job creation” and such are merely used as pacifiers.

Having taking ownership of South Africa’s government, they appear to have had only two desires: destroy the country while bankrupting it.

They never believed there could be consequences or repercussions as they specifically wrote laws and policies they could circumvent to protect themselves. Responsible leaders understand the concept of ownership.

Irresponsible leaders don’t. Just as a motor car requires care and regular servicing, so do does a country require care and governance.

Neither the people nor the taxpayers benefit from the current manner in which the country is being cared for – or rather not cared for.

Although they have temporary ownership of the government, the ruling party doesn’t own the country or its people.

Likewise they do not own the fiscus, even though they view it as a giant personal ATM that is at their disposal.

Whereas they may lay claim to owning the government, that claim is only on behalf of the voters and is bound to be short-lived.

However, having been exposed as a criminal cartel, it is not surprising that the ruling party has used their misguided “ownership” to enable uncontrolled crime to infest the country.

Nor is it surprising that the ruling party intends to disarm all legal gun owners, while allowing their fellow criminals to act unhindered, or without fear of resistance. v Mashaba is a political advisor