Dawn of a new age: Ask what you can do for SA
Destiny is not a matter of chance, but series of choices – make right one
At the same time, I am a realist. Unquestionably, I believe in South Africans and in South Africa. But as the boxer portrayed in the film, Rocky Balboa says, let me remind you of something you already know: the world is not all sunshine and rainbows. It can be a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.
Despite the progress made since Madiba’s release, South Africans have been hit hard by many things over the past 20 years. We have been slowed down, we have been diverted, and we at times have been stopped by barriers thrown up by morally corrupt leaders who have created a most unequal society in terms of service delivery, education and healthcare.
My principal concern is the way in which inequality has remained pervasive, hitting the poor again and again.
But, to invoke Rocky again, the key to winning, surviving and thriving is, in the end, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.
February 1990 was a moment of destiny. Seeing Mandela elected president of a free South Africa was another.
Now, in 2018, we stand at the dawn of a new age where the dizziness of uncertainty can be replaced by the equilibrium of equality. We are again witnesses to a moment of destiny in which a decade of corruption can be replaced with the birth of a South Africa which, despite its many challenges, has a chance to unite, not as a political party but rather as a society committed to becoming a nation of extraordinary achievers of equality.
Let me ask: What do you and Nelson Mandela have in common?
We are a nation of bridge builders. We will bridge the barriers of bigotry, bridge the chasms of inequality and bridge the barricades which block everyone from having equal opportunities. So, my countrymen and women: start cleaning the tools which we will use to build prosperity, start finding trust again in your hearts, and most importantly, start asking not what South Africa can do for me, but what I can do for South Africa.
Please pray for all our leaders, but in particular for the National Executive Committee of the ANC, for Cyril Ramaphosa, the party’s president, and for all members of Parliament as they chart the way forward in the coming days.