Hysteria is not helping SA

Pessimism and expectations of instant solutions are the diseases of our time. It is bewildering how people blindly believe what prophets of doom and populists dish up. In SA people talk about genocide and even announce it on foreign platforms, while farm murders are at their lowest level in 20 years.

In the US Donald Trump describes immigrants as rapists and criminals, while white Americans are responsible for regular mass shootings. He even announced that crime in Germany was on the rise due to immigrants, while it has actually decreased.

Of course we are facing problems, as is the case in other countries, but skewed facts and incitement increase tension, lead to division and do not contribute to solutions.

Another disease of our time is the expectation of instant solutions. What went wrong over many years, even over generations, cannot be rectified overnight.

Diversity, a divided nation and socioeconomic inequality, worsened by corruption and state capture during the Zuma era, create a fertile breeding ground for populists and opportunists on all sides to divide and mislead.

Now more than ever, it is important that cool heads prevail. President Cyril Ramaphosa is busy turning a huge ship around. His strategy is longer term — he is not playing the game of the populists, who put short-term own interests above those of the country.

A longer-term perspective, constructive criticism and positive inputs are what our country needs now, not mass hysteria.

Dawie Jacobs Sterrewag