It is human nature to always find fresh cause for optimism as we enter a new year.
For some inexplicable reason, the assumption is that January 1 will inevitably herald in better times to come. The fact that it is just another day escapes us.
So we steam in full of vigour and good intentions, setting impossible personal goals of self-improvement.
The standard ones, futile as they may, include going on a diet to lose weight and shape an athlete’s body, quit smoking and moderate drinking for health reasons, spend wisely to eliminate debt and start saving… and so on.
Now in the third week of January, most of the good intentions have no doubt gone up in smoke, so to speak.
Despair not, there must be many other positive developments outside of our personal space to keep our optimism barometer intact.
Ah yes, there are. At the ANC’s January 8 celebrations in Mangaung re-elected Comrade President uttered some dynamic pronouncements intended to instill hope in our despondent souls.
Among these were bold plans in the pipeline to end loadshedding, addressing the massive unemployment crisis (a ticking time bomb if ever there was one), and ensuring economic recovery and proper basic service delivery.
There we go. Kumbaya and joy to the world. The leader has spoken and utopia beckons.
But hang on, haven’t we heard all these exact sentiments before year in a year out over the past decade? And has anything changed?
If anything, it got worse, especially relating to the electricity crisis. No solutions or relief are in sight.
With Eskom CEO André de Ruyter having opted to cease being a traitor so he can enjoy his morning beverage and biscuits in an environment free of teapot poison testing, and the irrational plan to shift Eskom away from the Department of Public Enterprises to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (ja, there where Gwede Mantashe roams), we should be afraid, very afraid.
Scratching all that from our happy list, we have to find something else.
What about the undertakings of urgency in repairing the North Coast’s main arterial bridges damaged in the floods nine months ago so we can return normalcy relating to our local movements and economic activity?
Or the solving of constant local power interruptions, filling potholes that will last longer than a single bout of rain and other such issues closer to home?
Not really.
To save ourselves the psychological trauma of repeated optimism-disappointment fluctuations (a clear form of torture), we need to learn the key phrases leaders use to deflect the true state of affairs.
We can then ignore the false pronouncements and rather ‘gooi’ another ‘dop’.
When they use the following public relations terms, know that they haven’t got a clue how they are going to fix crises or that anything positive will happen soon.
“We will look into the matter…”
“We intend to…”
“We’ll investigate…”
“We must address the causes…”
“We take the matter seriously…”
“Urgent interventions are needed…”
And so on. All vague nonsense – and there are many more.
Come to think of it, the Prez’s speech was riddled with “we must…” and “we have to…” without offering any “this is how we are going to…”.
There’s a big difference.
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