ANOTHER VOICE murray swart Waving goodbye or waving a magic wand
AS THE HONEYMOON phase of South Africa’s split from her polygamous president becomes an all too distant memory the reality that Jacob Zuma was a symptom of the problem, rather than the cause thereof, is dawning on an ever-growing segment of the population.
That new broom that is South Africa’s No 1 v2.0 continues to sweep up a storm but time will tell whether this genuinely is a clean-up exercise or a poorly veiled effort to limit visibility and transparency by kicking up as much seemingly settled but equally sickening dust as possible.
While many will be holding their breath, amidst a self-inflicted and uncertain future, seeing the back of JZ has had many releasing a sigh of relief and was genuine cause for renewed optimism both locally and abroad.
Sadly, the truth is that, if anything, his departure is proving not to be a sign of good things to come but rather verification that, in the world of politics, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
If anything, Zuma’s resignation showed us both the differences and similarities between waving goodbye and waving a magic wand.
Both are a captivating gesture as they create a distraction with one hand to divert attention away from the trickery of the other.
However, only one of these is waved to entertain, amaze and thrill your audience and its not the one associated with literally pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
Doomsday prophecies
consistently deserving.
Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side but it usually isn’t. President Ramaphosa has given our flaky country a new coat of paint but since the cause of the flaking hasn’t been addressed the problem is all but guaranteed to resurface sooner and more severely than before.
Worse still is that upon their return, they will not only be more pronounced but more extensive, difficult to alleviate and if even repairable to begin with, expensive to fix.
Keeping in mind that those expenses and burdens are the taxpayers’ to carry, all choices made by No 1 v2.0 are still going to be made with other people’s money and certain individuals’ interests.
So why,what and how are we still celebrating?
We are nowhere near out of the woods. The finish line is not just around the corner and celebrating victory is very premature.
More lies, deceit and corruption are an inevitability and when it comes to following the money to keep people honest, it’s far easier to keep tabs on someone who can’t read numbers, let alone hide them.