It’s time to reclaim our memory and campaign for change
THE ruling party must be in a state of mild panic over the upcoming elections, though, they put up a brave face.
Their blunders are many, not to mention the infighting that has played out in the public arena.
It is obvious that unity within the ruling party is experiencing very bad weather. This opens the door to all sorts of opportunism, as we have seen.
Maintaining the status quo and maintaining the struggle of the dispossessed at the same time was never going to work.
We are not saints. We are human with painful and urgent human issues. The redress of these issues becomes more urgent with each passing day. The clamour of discontent is ringing throughout the land.
It is this clamour I want to talk about.
Our politics needs to stop being partisan. We need a vehicle through which black issues are dealt with, regardless of political affiliations.
Soon the window to focus on these issues will be closed. Judging by the impatience of the people who are yet to reap the benefits of development, I would say this grace period is almost over and their issues are still, largely, not dealt with.
The infighting and powermongering in the ruling party leads to a lot of egodriven, unethical and visionless decision-making. The danger of such decision-making is that it cheapens the struggle to better the lives of the majority of black people, setting fertile ground for neocolonialism.
That is why Marikana was the mother of all wakeup calls, or should have been.
The conditions that gave rise to Marikana are what the ruling party should be panicking about.
Maybe in all the noise – as the foundations of our beliefs tremor under our feet – black people fail to see the opportunity for redress. But we have the power to the means to change our circumstance.
It is the willpower that is the problem and, from some, the sincerity of intention. That there would be resistance to change from those who wanted to continue benefiting from colonialism should have been apparent from the beginning and therefore come as no shock. We have learned from countries around us.
We live in such a highlycharged society, a wounded society always expectant of shock and awe. Ours is a reactionary society, always expecting the negative. We have even begun to doubt our ability to lead.
After 19 years, we are disappointed in ourselves. So we see a pointlessness to constructive engagement, that is why the impotent clamour of discontent. That is why this clamour has violent undertones from those who are the most oppressed by poverty.
Maintaining the status quo and maintaining the struggle of the dispossessed at the same time was never going to work. But by us trying, showed that we had learned something from those around us, as the last country to gain colonial independence on the continent.
South Africa is still the richest country on the continent, though at a cost. What it should mean is that we have had 19 years of power to shape a vision for economic freedom.
We might need a few more years to polish that vision because “a house divided cannot stand”. Yes, 19 years is far, far from enough time to undo the madness of three centuries, but it should have been nearly enough time to plan.
The call for unity has to ring throughout the land. The call for economic freedom has been made. Poverty cannot continue to be our reality.
We cannot continue to bear children only to bury them. If this continues, we will only have ourselves to blame.
The window for redress beckons. The time is now. The burden of memory should be embraced during these tumultuous shifts in consciousness. To be burdened with centuries of the memory of our pain is to know and see the vision.
It is possible to reclaim our memory. Therefore, it is possible to selflessly campaign for change. We can be one again. We can.