Do we deserve better than we have?

Given our current situation, the statement, “In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve”, may well give many South Africans pause for reflection and some introspection.

The invariable response to this statement, in the form – almost – of a reflex reaction is, “Surely we deserve better than we currently have?”.

With little fear of contradiction, one could probably add, “or have any reasonable prospect of getting”!

SA has been controlled by a succession of self-interest groups who “dealt with” those who stood up against them.

In post-1994 SA the ANC, very much a self-interest group, has been looting the public purse of untold billions on a wide front – the public servants have become plunderers of the public purse – at every step of the way.

The ANC unseated the incumbents, appointing their surrogates to key positions and opening the floodgates to large-scale tender-rigging and corruption.

In the process, the ANC has inflicted serious damage on the factors critical to the health of the economy, with devastating consequences for many millions of our people.

Poverty and crime are everywhere, businesses are failing, joblessness statistics are through the roof, and despite enormous ongoing spending on public education and health, standards and service levels continue downwards.

We have fallen ignominiously from our position of economic standard bearer of Africa – we have finally moved from economic growth to being in a technical recession.

Given our present landscape, hopes for a better future for current and future generations look bleak indeed.

The astounding thing is that had we been able to get it together as a nation of one people (South Africans first and foremost), the country was destined to be a trail blazer.

(Many in the international community, after observing the “miracle” of 1994, expected great things of SA.)

Nelson Mandela placed us firmly on the road to being a nation of special peoples, who would combine to show the way forward, to be the living template and powerful example to a disparate, divided and very confused world.

Mandela’s dream was (temporarily?) derailed by the bankruptcy of character and venality of those who came after him in the ANC.

The state of our nation begs the question: where are our luminaries, our erudite notables in business, commerce, academia, economics and jurisprudence?

We know that, across the broad spectrum of our rainbow nation, are people of passion and, above all, patriotism, as well as those who have the material resources to get behind the – by now – essential and pressing initiative.

It will take a brains trust or think tank to come up with a solution.

Our country needs a democratic alternative in place before the next general election because, as things stand, beyond that, the socio-economic-political abyss awaits us with glaring certainty.

We need our leaders to begin emerging from the shadows. Sandy Johnston Nelson Mandela Bay

It will take a brains trust or think tank to come up with a solution