‘Born frees’ give us all hope for a better future

Two things which in a peculiar way complement each other attracted my attention over the past weekend. The first was the well-written article by our esteemed Argus columnist Ryland Fisher, headlined: “The rights of the poor that remain low on the SA political agenda”.

The second was about Julius Malema and the EFF at the gathering of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces at their annual general meeting at Sun City.

Malema made a sincere plea for “land redistribution without vengeance”, and I think he sincerely means it.

If we can strike a balance between the two and find a way of collectively alleviating the plight of the poor in a big way, than half the battle is won.

Malema certainly has no intention of taking privately owned land from people.

Personally, I don’t think we have anything to fear from a man who has achieved so much of late – for instance, his BA degree (and, in the process, also encouraging his party members to study further) and, just recently, calling on fans to show their support, and having a big influence in filling the stadium for Bafana’s last match against Senegal.

I applaud him for setting a good example for our youth. So if a person of his calibre calls for land redistribution, we must believe that it comes from deep inside and without any malice.

All this takes me back to a conversation I had with a friend of mine while watching our kids play rugby on a Saturday morning at one of those privately owned rugby schools.

The topic was about how wonderfully privileged our children are to now enjoy the facilities of these private schools.I can’t remember at which school it was.

It does not really matter though, because almost all previously white-only schools have these enormous amounts of playing fields and wonderful facilities to boot, and my wish is for all the children, mine included, to now continue to enjoy them to the fullest.

Whenever I attend these matches, I can’t help but ponder about the unfairness of the previous regime, and it makes me very sad and even mad when I drive past so many of our local coloured school complexes – and needless to say we all know that our township schools are in a much worse situation.

Up until today nothing much has changed.

They either have no playing fields or whatever is available is totally unfit for any kind of enjoyment for our poor kids.

The simple reason is that it is financially impossible to bring any kind of parity to the less fortunate institutions at this stage.

So can we really blame Malema for feeling the way he does?

I have spoken about the “born frees” before, and the sense I get when I am around the white born frees is that even they feel embarrassed to have so many privileges as compared to what they encounter at previously disadvantaged schools.

All the born frees, I would like to believe, are a different breed and very soon they will make up the bulk of the country’s voters.

And hopefully things will change for the better.

So, God willing, there is definitely hope for a better future for all if that is how much the mindset of people has changed.

• Mo Noor Joseph is a city business owner and Cape Argus reader