It was a year of rude awakenings
JUST about everybody you might care to ask will tell you that, of all recent years, 2016 was the pits, only less politely.
It’s been a year of impoliteness, of rude awakenings, of waking up to find that what’s real has been replaced – seemingly with befuddling effect in national and international affairs – by what’s on social media.
Suddenly, feelings matter more than ideas, and they are mostly not good feelings.
In the wake of the brutal excesses of Islamic State, and the repressive instincts of shaky regimes, the mammoth migration of desperate modern-minded people from backward, failing states to the brighter promise of Europe and elsewhere (America chiefly) proved tragically to be the ideal condition for a resurgence of conservative nationalism and xenophobia, and a readily abused gift to fear-mongering populists.
It could be that never before have the opinions of the most forgettable among us been rewarded with such riveted attention. And, perhaps, not without cause.
This, after all, has been the common thread running through some of the big events of the year. It is true of the jolting impact of little Englander sentimentality in the Brexit result in June, and of Donald Trump’s brazen November triumph in a presidential election it had always been unthinkable that he could win.
Closer to home, it is a slithery theme in President Jacob Zuma’s breathtaking endurance on the strength of a collective loyalty that stands at a distant remove from what might objectively be considered the national interest. And it is true, too, of the monthslong rage fest of often fashionably clad, cellphone-thumbing students, along with the misdirected lightning strikes that have illuminated some of the more modest intellects at work in the decolonialist/fallist landscape.
Measured thinking, prosaic rationality and real ideas did not appear to be much of a driving force in most of the year’s big events.
Somewhat beyond the realm of “serious” politics, lots of at least moderately intelligent, if chronically maladjusted, people made complete asses of themselves in public by simply being their deeply unattractive selves, calling others animal names and suchlike. KwaZuluNatal real estate agent Penny Sparrow got the ball rolling in January by referring to black beachgoers as “monkeys” – she was later lumped with a R150000 fine for her mean sentiments – and umpteen others followed suit. Among them was the benighted Velaphi Khumalo, who took the trouble of sharing his thoughts with the world on why, for instance, white-skinned people deserved to be dealt with in the manner of Jews under Hitler.
This was strong meat, and he was duly suspended from his job at the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation – until, a few months and a disciplinary hearing later, Khumalo went back to work, having received a talking to, and a final warning. His job as sports promoter, the department said without a hint of irony, would be aimed at “getting Gauteng active”, clearly not a post a slapped wrist disqualified him for.
These and other racist outbursts, according to the more febrile news organisations, were said to have “rocked” the country – which of course they didn’t. They set fire to social media but, as calmer citizens know, that isn’t the same thing.
What did rock the country, in August, was the ANC’s unprecedented reverses in the local government elections, with the DA (here and there aided by a modestly advancing EFF) consolidating its metropolitan foothold.
There were further rockings down the road – almost all related to Jacob Zuma’s marred presidency – although, as they were not entirely unexpected, the effect was less than seismic. In the words of prominent Zuma critic Sipho Pityana, what we got in 2016 was “a cataclysmic anti-climax”.
As evidence of the rot piled up – former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s damning Nkandla report, Secure in Comfort; the Constitutional Court’s finding that the president and Parliament had acted in a manner inconsistent with the Constitution in their handling of the report; the later Madonsela report on state capture and the Guptas; Zuma’s initial attempt to block it, and the high-risk gamble of gunning for hostile Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan – many believed Zuma was finished.
Yet, as University of Pretoria Professor Tinyiko Maluleke has observed: “As an experienced shepherd would marshal a herd of cattle on the rural plains of… Lusikisiki, so has Jacob Zuma marshalled the NEC, the ANC parliamentary caucus, the Cabinet and the alliance partners.”
He went on to say that the top six in the ruling party, along with the rest of the ANC, “appear hypnotised by Zuma’s political footwork”. South Africa scraped through with a reprieve from the ratings agencies – which had threatened to consign us to junk status – though there is scant sign of the policy reform most analysts believe is needed to turn the economy around.
This is a deficiency compounded by the staggering announcement in December that we shall tackle democratic South Africa’s now 22-year-old education crisis by lowering the pass mark for maths in some grades to 20%.
And so the South African year ended pretty much as it began.
But there were good feelings, too, this year. In the Rio Olympics, there were stunning performances by athletes Wayde van Niekerk and Caster Semenya, and South Africa’s total medal count of 10 was the best haul by a national team in 96 years.
There was little to celebrate, however, in the Springboks’ performances, crowned in November by Italy’s historic first defeat of embattled South Africa, condemning the Boks to their seventh loss in 11 Tests in the year. Sporting spirits soared, though, at the Proteas’ emphatic Test series victory over Australia.
In a very different arena, South African opera star Pretty Yende – described in a British news report this year as “one of opera’s fastest-rising divas” – launched her debut solo album A Journey.
Religious fervour and tribal antagonism played their part in continuing terror and counter-terror, with lethal attacks this year all over the world.
Better minds were focused on human achievement and planetary sustainability. In June Nasa’s Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter to begin a 20-month survey of the planet, and in September the agency launched OSIRIS-Rex, its first asteroid sample return mission.
Old technology lapsed in the manufacture of the very last video cassette recorder by Japanese company Funai on July 22. Just a few days later, the new future was heralded when Solar Impulse 2 became the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth.
The grim reaper took his share of talent, expertise and fame in 2016. Big-name deaths included celebrity dictator Fidel Castro, ace guitarist Prince, boxing legend Mohammed Ali, soulful poet and singer Leonard Cohen, the inimitable David Bowie, and pioneering spaceman John Glenn.
Then again, some among the year’s births – a staggering 340-odd million – are likely to be remembered by generations to come as the marvels who breathed their first in 2016.
Life, after all, does go on, the Trumps and Zumas and whatever must fall notwithstanding.
It could be that never before have the opinions of the most forgettable among us been rewarded with such riveted attention