Many people have many opinions about what apartheid was - and it certainly was many things. None of them were good.
However, at the heart of the apartheid ethos was the belief that black South Africans were incapable of governing themselves.
That the country would descend into murder, mayhem and destruction if black people were allowed to vote.
That black people were to be tightly controlled, lest they send the country tipping over the edge into a downward spiral of destruction.
Remember 'die swart gevar?. (Scuse the spelling if that's wrong - English speaker and all.)
The thing is, as much as thinking people know that that's not the case when it comes to black people in general - that they make perfectly good neighbors and even play a reasonable game of pool / touch rugby / jukskei when the occasion arises, does it not seem that the ANC is proving them right?
Every time I read anything about ANC excess, corruption or generally spectacular inability to govern their way out of a damp paper bag, I have to wonder how they can't realise that they've become the very stereotype they wanted to overthrow?
When the current ANC government looks in the mirror, how can they not see the ghosts of Botha, Verwoed and company looking back at them? Not only have they become the stereotype those men thrust upon black South Africans, but they've also managed to combine that with a grotesque mirror image of that former racist regime too. Quite the feat, for sure - but not one to be proud of.
How can they stand it, knowing just how badly they are failing their people? That they are writing pages in history that will never be erased, and that will always leave that shadow of doubt in minds: was there a grain of truth in the notion that black people in South Africa cannot govern themselves?
As much as I am a vocal opponent of the ANC, I was a joyful supporter of our new South Africa - back when there was hope and when it seemed that there was a future.
Today, I cannot help but be disgusted and embarassed by how the ANC took every South African's hopes and dreams for the country and wiped their fat, collective butts with them.
South Africa will never truly be free, until we get rid of the self serving bastards who are screwing it up for everyone. We did it with the Nats - will it take another 30 years before we accomplish the same with the next selfish, racist regime?
Cry the beloved country indeed.
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