President Ramaphosa… you’ve put us last

Dear Mr President. As Eskom has very kindly reduced our load shedding – after all, elections are coming next year – I can now complete my letter to you.

In my last letter, I wrote about the lack of concern regarding the many farm murders. Suffice to say, it is not only the whites who are subjected to rampant crime and terror in our farmlands, it is farmers of all colours.

Aren’t you concerned or are you just going to appoint another costly commission of inquiry and hope it pacifies everyone?

It has now been internationally recognised that more people are murdered in South Africa than what there are casualties in the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine. Over the past three months, 1 574 people were killed in the Ukraine war. In SA, 6 228 people were murdered over the same period.

This speaks volumes on your inability, along with that of the police minister, to ensure a safe, secure, and stable country.

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This is something any civilised country ought to be deeply ashamed of. But then again, under your watch, we can hardly consider ourselves civilised.

Those who dare speak out about the rampant and endemic corruption in your government put their lives at risk. Police officers who are trying to uphold the law, against incredible odds, are frequently gunned down or sidelined. How disgraceful.

But our close cooperation with China, as part of the Brics initiative, may just bring us good hope as well. In China, those who are sentenced for corruption are executed by firing squad. Are we going to follow that route as well, or will it result in our parliament losing too many ministers?

After all, it is well known how corruption has flourished under your watch despite all the promises and undertakings to stop it.

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You recently admitted that minority groups have been neglected under your government. Is this an election ploy or have you finally realised that to pull the country out of the depths of disaster your administration has created, we need to engage business people and entrepreneurs and dispense with the restrictive economic polices?

While the current administration engages itself with often irrelevant matters, how has it not been realised that we have bankrupt municipalities overseen by millionaire officials. Our once cash-flush municipalities are now filthy, crime-ridden ungoverned areas where only those with guns and ill intent rule.

Yet, an already disastrous municipality plans to hold a party costing in excess of millions of rands and consider it to be “global best practise”. And this while people are starving for food and services. This is beyond shameful.

Mr President, you have put the citizens of SA last, and yourselves first.

Surely this is one of the reasons why citizens become restive and do everything in their power to rid their countries of incompetence, institutionalised corruption, and a lack of governance.

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The Brics summit is a great place for your government to once again beg for money. Investment is a good thing and no country can survive without it. I hope those who are keen to invest in this failing state are advised to hold onto their money and not pay a cent into its coffers. Please also tell that to the hardline governments that were accepted into Brics that, once there, money will simply disappear like magic.

While our foreign policy is apparently aimed at trying to play one country off against another, has anyone considered the implications? The current administration is trying desperately to drive an anti-West sentiment and narrative, instead of trying to drive an inclusive South African sentiment and narrative.

Few people can do more harm to this great country than your current government.

Perhaps a referendum suggesting Deputy President Paul Mashatile and the ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula take control of this mess you oversaw will help us overcome disaster. They can do so immediately while you clear your offices.

And please do not give another State of the Nation Address as our nation is in a terrible state.

• Mashaba is a political analyst