Together we can save the country

Nelson Mandela said that “to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others”.

It’s something to ponder – for us as individual citizens … but even more so for the politicians who control our lives.

On the 31st anniversary of the first democratic election in our country – the one which should have dispatched apartheid to the dustbin of history – the very word “freedom” seems mocking in so many ways, to so many people.

What good is political freedom?

What good is political freedom, many would ask, if you do not have the economic freedom you need to build yourself a better life out of the hole of poverty?

We need to be frank with ourselves when we think about that question. If much of our economy is still in the hands of whites, why is that the case?

Why have successive ANC governments failed to bring about real transformation – and the sharing of South Africa’s wealth?

Is it because they have been too busy looting and ensuring the transfer of money from one corrupt elite to another?

Why is it that race-based laws – and they are there, if not in the hundreds as claimed by some right-wingers – are still necessary?

Is that not more an indictment of the ANC’s failure at nation-building than the refusal of white people to become truly part of a non-racial society?

What happened to that spirit of co-operation of the “Rainbow Nation” years?

Our story today – about a community in Pretoria coming together to restore water supplies to 15 000 households, with municipal workers offering their labour for free in a common cause – shows we can still work together.

And we’re going to have to work together – without the politicians if necessary – to save this country.

NOW READ: Freedom Day: ‘SA a free and sovereign country, not a province of US,’ Mantashe says [VIDEOS]