Let’s not waste another chance to save SA

● It happened in 2007 when the ANC ignored the chance to condemn Jacob Zuma to the life of rural obscurity he so richly deserved and instead made him its leader.

The same year, load-shedding struck for the first time. Eskom could have been fixed relatively easily then, but mismanagement and corruption took root instead. Loadshedding recurred as recently as March.

In 2008, nationwide xenophobic attacks claimed 56 lives. Regular flare-ups continue to leave foreigners dead, with no sign of a strategy to replace hate with tolerance.

The Marikana massacre in 2012 produced the most lethal use of force by security forces since the height of apartheid. Seven years later, no police officer has been prosecuted over the deaths of 34 miners, and the recommendations of the Farlam commission of inquiry have not been implemented.

All of which brings us to one of the most tumultuous and emotional weeks in recent memory, marked by a nationwide uprising against the appalling and often brutal way men treat women, a fresh bout of bloody xenophobia, and the early signs of pariah status for SA on the continent.

The past few days have felt like the kind of inflexion point we have previously squandered. Expressing universal horror, South Africans of goodwill have united across society’s many divides to condemn the evil that again threatens to engulf us.

In their insipid and often self-serving responses, politicians of all stripes have made it clear they are incapable of rising to the challenges the week has presented.

This leaves a vacuum. And the people — especially young people, whose future hopes have been so poorly served — have rushed to fill it. With defiant rallying cries including #IAmNotNext, young women and teenage girls, in particular, have shown how assertive grassroots leadership can bring a glimmer of hope to the darkest of days.

Impressionable young minds represent fertile ground in which to nurture a brighter future. Schools should be the places where we begin to construct a country we can be proud of, rather than one that continually carries the stench of shame.

Our report today on aspects of the embryonic comprehensive sexuality education curriculum will no doubt alarm religious groupings and those of a conservative bent. But in the face of a moral emergency, we urge them to bite their tongues. Plainly, the education system is failing to produce well-adjusted adults capable of treating each other with respect. Antediluvian cultural and religious attitudes are not helping. Attempts to haul SA into the 21st century by producing enlightened young citizens might feel uncomfortable to some, but the likely alternative is many more weeks like the one we’ve just endured.

That would be another crisis tragically wasted, with consequences none of us wish to contemplate.