Employees try to clear mud at a flooded garage in Ispingo KwaZulu-Natal after recent flooding in the area, 13 April 2022. Picture: Jacques Nelles
Back in 1993, as black anger threatened to boil over following the assassination of Chris Hani and as right-wing sabotage and violence began rearing its ugly head, Louis Luyt promised a spectacular Rugby World Cup in South Africa two years into the future.
As the country teetered on the brink of civil war ahead of the demise of apartheid, Luyt seemed, to some at least, to have lost his mind. Yet, we all know what happened at the Ellis Park Stadium in June 1995.
One wonders if history might repeat itself, following Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton’s expressed wish that Grands Prix will return to South Africa.
SA is standing at the edge of an even bigger abyss now. Trillions of rands have been looted from government coffers. Unemployment is at record levels. We have the highest inequality in the world. Xenophobia is again building up a nasty head of steam.
Our most populous province has been devastated by floods which claimed more than 400 lives and left billions in damage.
Even as the clean-up starts, many of us are worried that, as happened with the Covid relief funds, money will go missing from reconstruction and aid projects.
On top of all that, our power utility has again imposed rolling blackouts and is vacuuming up hundreds of millions of rands extra each day for emergency electricity generators.
By contrast, our motorsport sector is well able to host a world-class event at Kyalami, which is a worldclass track and has already hosted premier global motorsport events.
We are capable, therefore, of scaling the heights most other African countries can only dream about.
What we need is honest and hard-working political leadership. We need to think outside the box of racial prejudice too. We need to work together.
Luyt saw something. So does Hamilton. We should too.
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