South Africa has to find its own MH370

key institutions of power in South Africa.

The complicated web of command and control that hitherto suggested a parallel state was made, sealed and delivered, leaving most of South Africa appalled. This happened amid protracted denial and protectionist strategies and tactics by the ruling party itself, only to admit lately, but with surprising denial of knowledge of what was happening.

Decorum was demanded in the house of honourable members as the red berets aggressively led the charge reacting to the “signal” of flotsam and debris. Opposition parties and civil society joined in.

The public protector at the time, Thuli Madonsela, was castigated as she responded to the signal.

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng had to adjudge both the executive and Parliament as derelict and yet the ruling party continued to have its thumbs in its retinas and elbows in its ears, while the flotsam and debris floated for over eight years.

Today it’s a ping here, a ping there, a flotsam here, a flotsam there, a flurry of debris all over portending a message of difficult times ahead.

Like Air Malaysia MH370, signals are clear that it perished in the ocean, but without the black box and the fuselage there will never be closure.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new dawn should be about getting the black box and the fuselage. Without it, the development challenge will remain illusive.

Electioneering seems to have become a typical response to a ping here, a ping there, a flotsam and debris here and there.

The key lesson from former president Jacob Zuma’s tenure is this: South Africa is in need of a serious and deep cut understanding and response into its economic, social and political soul.

This is a tragedy that can only be addressed and mitigated through a factbased and focused endeavour and not by a five-year interval of survivalist electioneering fever and frenzy. We have our MH370 to find.