Farouk Araie

Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate was 63.9% for those aged 15 to 24 and 42.1% for those aged 25 to 34 years. The current official national rate stands at 34.5%.

This is another double-edged sword for a mammoth upheaval. Our road network has collapsed. Even the toll roads are buckling under the increased cargo, and rural roads are impassable as potholes have eaten up the tarred surface. The number of potholes exceeds scores of millions.

Disrepair has affected every section of the economy, costing billions, as industries and the movement of cargo and commuters becomes an unbearable logistical problem that continues to deteriorate. Thousands of jobs have been lost and many industries have had to close down as a result of the callous neglect of our road infrastructure.

Our rail infrastructure has been looted, sabotaged and torn apart. Our rail stations resemble Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the US atomic attack. A world-class rail system comprising 20,694km of track that used to move 530 million passengers per year.

This destroyed infrastructure results in millions of poverty-stricken passengers having to use more expensive road transport and arriving late for work because of the conditions of the road network.

Millions go to work early and return home late under hazardous circumstances because of rail and road vandalism.

Their anger and fury is all bottled up. Some day it will explode with high-octane retaliation. Violent and petty crime is out of control – 60 innocent people are murdered every day; rape continues unabated.

Those in the corridors of power for the past 28 years have shamelessly stolen our crown jewels, embezzling trillions, sending SA into the hellhole it is today.

Our nation was forged in fire, was conceived in fire. Our freedom was baptised in fire, our independence was sanctified and blessed in fire. Let not our hard-won democracy be consumed in a fiery inferno.