How did we get to this?

A teacher accused our class of being a bunch of idiots, fools and clowns. The same can be said of South Africans, of which I’m a good example. Head cases, all of us.

How else would you describe a nation allowing its country to sink economically to junk status and psychologically in line for mental institutions?

Who, in their right mind, would have elected Jacob Zuma to the high office of president? And that after the fine example set by Nelson Mandela, who steered the country from a draconian era into one in which peace and prosperity beckoned.

Only nincompoops could not have read the danger signs when Mandela left the scene and the governing party was showing early signs of in-fighting by the way Thabo Mbeki was ousted through a manipulative whipper-snapper.

Our collective stupidity didn’t end there. Think of the arms deal and the Zuma and Shaik episode during which only one was sent to jail despite it being a corrupt relationship. Could we not have realised a relationship takes two to tango? No, we believed Judge Seriti’s findings that there was no proof of corruption.

When Shaik was released because he was on the verge of death, we believed the parole board. And what did we do when it was found the wily Shabir was so fit and well that he was playing golf and throwing punches around? Our silence was deafening.

But, hey, our hopes were raised with the appointment of Cyril Ramaphosa. We expected a miracle. How dumb can we get? We fell for his sugar-coated promise of a new dawn. Did we not see this could not happen while he stuck with known crooks in the Cabinet?

Even more dumb, we still cling to the promise of more jobs, better health services and a crime-free society. What? We’re in a state of emergency, with no end to killing, looting and burning. Have we not seen through the parliamentarian rhetoric disguised in the overused phrase, “there is a process in place”. We are not asking, “What process, who’s heading it, how far has it gone?”

We have also been numbed to reality. Even churches are holding funeral services for known felons, with fellow crooks eulogising them as heroes.

Only idiots accept vrot governance. And by not using the ballot box, we further prove our idiocy.

Cliff Buchler.

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