No amount of jingoism will save us

THE racial rhetoric that is being used to celebrate the Springboks’ success in the recent Rugby World Cup does little to advance non-racialism in the South African democracy.

In fact, the popular narrative about how “black and white can work together” reverberates throughout this victory story entrenching social division and achievement along racial divides.

We persevere at any given opportunity to recycle the hollow concept of the “rainbow nation” without any durable success because we fail, as a nation, each time, to seriously address the fundamental causes of the social, political and economic inequalities which prevent a cohesive South African nation from being born.

Instead we remain trapped in a country whose leaders, on most levels, employ well-oiled spin doctors to engineer and construct false notions of our social and political progress. In 1995 it was a “white” rugby captain to bring home the cup to President Mandela. In 2019 it is a “black” captain who brings it home to President Ramaphosa. So where is the progress?

When will a South African captain be the bearer of good tidings?

However, amidst whatever social engineering, the elephants in the room remain firmly ensconced, a stark presence alerting us to our fragile jubilation when treasuring national triumphs.

Whether it is a dangling case of alleged racist brutality by a rugby player, the glaring increase of the unemployment rate, or the ersatz claim by a defunct education minister that education is “on the rise” when statistics reveal that fewer children of the poor actually complete 12 years of basic education or bankrupt state-owned enterprises as a result of corruption and capture, we trudge along duped into believing that we are on the road to recovery.

No amount of jingoism will save us. Our hope lies in striving to see beyond illusions of progress.

South Africans must commit to becoming their own liberators. ABU BAKR SOLOMONS | Southfield