Hope springs eternal, I believe is the saying.
Well, today I again do have hope and hopefully it’s not again misguided as I read comments made by the NPC, its leader Trevor Manuel and Mathews Phosa.
Positive changes are needed in SA and the only party who can realistically make these changes are the ANC as they are both the government and also the party the majority of South Africans support. They have the power; they just need to use it effectively.
South Africa needs to find work for 44.6 % of our 18-25 year-olds because they are our collective future and also the most dangerous group of people in the country. Ask anybody who’s spent time in Africa how dangerous child soldiers are, how ruthless and cruel they can be when pushed to such extremes that they lose hope entirely. We are looking at youngsters who are at the perfect age to bear arms, to fight wars and to tear countries apart.
They can also be the guiding light that takes this country forward – in fact they must be and this alone demands that changes be made.
We cannot allow these youngsters to be lost, with their energy, their thirst for knowledge and their ability to change things. We were all that age once and we believed we could change the world. They too deserve their chance and we must give it to them.
If Mathews Phosa is also to be taken seriously with his talk of scrapping the cadre deployment “system” and putting in its place an effective, professional civil service then that too has to be commended. With an efficient civil service all is possible and the wheels can once more begin to turn.
It was said when I was young that the wheels of government, and justice - and anything you can think of that works well - turn slowly but they grind exceedingly fine. In other words it may be slow and sometimes tortuous to endure but in the end good results emerge.
I cannot accept that the ANC, as a party, would be willing to see all that it, and us, have endured and worked for, for so long, be destroyed by neglect, and poor governance and corruption and crime. It just doesn’t make any sense and all must make sense eventually – even chaos.
There are individuals within the ANC - if what I’ve read today has been correctly reported - who are capable and hardworking and able to make a difference, just as there are those of us who would be willing to support them in this quest. Of this I have no doubt.
It’s not all good news though; things seldom are even on a good day.
The ANCYL are again talking economic transformation and about changing the constitution, as tensions simmer at a mine. The government are attempting through the courts, using our money, to overturn the e-tolling system, ironically enough to get more money from us.
These are not positive signs, far from it, but with the statements emanating from the NPC, and Mr Phosa, it would seem that a balance is returning, that not everything is doom and gloom.
I will not dwell on other things that I disagree with, and there are many, but for now rather concentrate on the positives and hope that these will help us turn the corner.
Thus I would both hope that the positives I’ve read today are real, and genuine, and not mere politicking for then I will be desolate.
Let us hope.
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