NO PROMISING PLAN TO TAKE COUNTRY FORWARD

IT WAS the relentless struggle of our people against the cruel, unjust apartheid government, in which our heroes and heroines played their roles in realising the democratic political dispensation we now enjoy. The government, in its vision and capacity to take us forward, is starting to show cracks and is heading for a culde-sac, more so with the purportedly corruption-riddled, questionable leadership of Jacob Zuma, that one wonders if it’s not time they passed on the baton.

On February 9, Zuma delivered what is supposedly his last State of the Nation address as the president of the (not-so-effective) democratic government. Following the tussle, howling, insults and disruptive chaos that saw some opposition parties forcibly removed from Parliament, the president eventually made his speech. It was his usual rhetoric about service delivery, poverty and the few strides made by the government to address those challenges. His speech was characterised by tardiness, with an action plan that was supposed to be rolled out 15 years ago when the ANC missed a golden opportunity, with a twothirds majority, to change the constitution, to deal with inequality (the highest in the world) and land issues.

We’ve clearly lost the compass. Not even the opposition, including the EFF and DA, seem to have the capacity and know-how to take us forward. We need new ideas and leadership to steer us out of this quagmire.

Patrick Mphuthi