Clap your hands and nod your head in agreement with me that
a future is dreamed of and shaped by a struggle. In South Africa we see many
ordinary citizens struggling to empower themselves, their families and their
communities.
We are aware of the less fortunate – vigorously begging in
their struggle to feed themselves. Not only do we see the ordinary man
struggling but also we see the more fortunate struggling to meet their
financial targets. South Africa is a nation of many struggles – unemployment,
economic equilibrium, political stability and social inequality.
Our citizens continue to struggle for basic services such as
water, electricity and sewerage. Our elders do not stop calling for peace and
harmony in our land – they struggling to sleep at night due to the
demoralization of our youth. Our parents have loss hope in their children
because of their rebellious attitudes towards education and upholding values.
Our teachers have
lost their patience in the classroom given their inability to control the
disrespectful behavior of their learners. Our leaders cannot see the direction
of our transformation – the constitution provides that this country belongs to
all who live in it, yet we remain to point fingers instead of collaborating and
joining strengths for the betterment of our society.
Our traditional
leaders are sacrificing like never before as our ancestors are burning in anger
as we turn away from our customs, rituals and norms.
The struggles of today are the celebrations of tomorrow –
each struggle has to challenge us to understand and appreciate our
circumstances. Struggles ought to awaken our souls to realize the significant
amount of possibilities that lie ahead of us.
So we need to start
embracing our struggles as a united nation. We must not be negative about our
struggles, as they always say ‘there is light at the end of the tunnel’.
In South Africa innocent people struggle to access the
simplest services – a pregnant women may struggle to receive the necessary
medication she needs for her pregnancy, she may even struggle to get to the
nearest hospital for delivery, she may still not have access to social grant,
she will not be able to send her child to school nor provide her child with the
necessary love and care as she is struggling to survive.
This cycle of poverty
is the life story of many women from the village to Khumbuza to the hilltops of
Transkie. So what do we do with our struggles?
We should now begin to struggle to build our nations, we
have struggled for our democracy – it is about time we struggle to sustain this
democracy, to make it work for the ordinary men – to make this freedom become a
reality for all South Africans.
It is without a doubt
that South Africans are anxious and uncertain about our future as a nation
hence we must struggle to live, to grow and to prosper as a collective. We
should struggle and suffer to realize the potential of our nations because with
pain comes joy.
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