‘Tis the end of the year and time to be merry and all that, but sometimes it can go too far.
Our president got all excited when the Springboks won the World Cup, as did we all, and granted us a public holiday.
It was last Friday, ahead of Reconciliation Day on Saturday. It had no official title, so I suppose it could be called Bok Day.
Used to be that elections happened every four years, like the World Cup. Nobody gave them a thought until a few months before.
It was the Americans who started the rot, with their never-ending primaries and campaign conventions that makes it seem that their elections are happening all the time.
Now we’ve started the same nonsense. Our next general elections will probably be towards the middle of next year. But the politicians have been bleating about elections since the start of this year.
I blame the TV media.
They’re always in search of a something to fill their news bulletins.
Put a microphone in front of a politician and you can’t shut them up.
Cyril went on the box on Reconciliation Day to boast that the ANC had delivered on all of its promises.
True, the ANC said:
· We promise to get rich at the expense of the poor. Tick.
· We promise to break every state-owned entity. Tick.
· We promise to break education. Tick.
· We promise to lead the world in unemployment. Tick.
It’s too easy to get despondent about the broader picture in SA where so much is broken. So, it’s healthier to concentrate on what can be achieved in our own back yard.
For example, I think of the many parties that have been putting in a good effort to improve this part of the North Coast.
First off, well done to Siza Water for being placed in the top three water suppliers in the country for the quality of our water.
But there are many bodies that play a vital role in keeping the Dolphin Coast looking good: the Urban Improvement Programme (UIP) for a tidy Business Park and beachfront, Dolphin Coast Waste for its efficient waste removal team, the municipality’s parks and gardens team and even the road patching team, the lifeguards who keep sea users safe, the cops who are holding roadblocks across the region this season – and so many more who quietly work away in the background, making the glue that keeps a community together.
A great example is the Sheffield conservancy group.
Many residents along the Colwyn Drive stretch chip in monthly for workers who clean the beaches of unsightly plastic, cut back bush and keep the road verges neat and tidy.
Various residents, mostly retired folk, have maintained the beach access walkways, rebuilding where they were broken by storms and creosoting timber.
Others keep a check on street lights and road markings and chase the municipality to fix them, with varying degrees of success it must be said, but they’re making an effort.
It’s a thankless task, but the result is quite noticeable. And none of this is achievable without the aid of local councilor Privi Makhan and the co-operation of the municipality.
It’s a lesson to us all: fix what you can, where you can. Heaven helps those who help themselves.
Have a Happy Christmas, everybody, and all the best for the New Year from myself and the Wordsmiths team.
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