A country divided

Ihave never heard as many conspiracy theories since the massive Cabinet reshuffle last week. Zuma did it because of the nuclear deal, because he has a dislike for Pravin and Jonas. He did it because Atul and company ordered that such a move be made or he did it because he wanted to show the country that even though he may not have been invited to a stalwart’s funeral, he still has rule of the millions of citizens in the republic.

We may hashtag all sorts of clever phrases and have black Monday to Friday – but, at the end of the day, he wanted to reshuffle the Cabinet, and he did.

Here is the thing that gets me. The number of conspiracy theories that the different spheres of the population come up with.

We are all opposed to the idea that the National Treasury is slowly becoming a personal purse to an elite few. We are actually angered by this. But we have not decided collectively who to hold accountable.

Is it the Zuma family, the Guptas or the Ruperts? As a collective, we are so divided that we cannot slay the monster that holds us hostage because we all want to have a unique understanding of the situation, sometimes so unique that we deviate from the solution.

I, for one, am not too concerned with the whys as much as I am with the morality of the entire situation.

Be it a Gupta, Rupert or a Zuma, be it white privilege or black entitlement, it happened in the face of poverty of some pockets of society and during widening of the gap between the haves and the have nots.

Crime is on the rise because people claim not to have access to resources that allow for self-improvement.

People are becoming richer and richer off the hard work of people who sometimes cannot even afford to go through life without living from pay cheque to pay cheque.

People are quick to remind us that Rupert and the like have been looting the state from the days of the apartheid regime. I cannot argue what I do not know.

What I do know is that we have now reached junk status.

Politically, economically and definitely by race and gender, we are divided.

And now, as evidenced from the many conspiracy theories, we are even more divided.