We are still trapped on Robben Island

I HOPE that among the first memos President Ramaphosa reads today will be from me as a father and grandfather.

Around the very time he was addressing the nation and extolling the achievements of the ANC dominated government, the DA was waging a placard demonstration at the 45th cutting in Sherwood.

That speech and the celebration of the 107 years of existence of the ANC dominated every media outlet and so, inevitably the raison d’être informing that demonstration will at best deserve a footnote.

I don’t agree with the politics of the DA but I subscribe to the ethos that it is prepared to defend its right to be heard. My children and grandchildren, among the youth whom President Ramaphosa addressed during his 55-minute speech, requested me to pen the following memo to him. I obliged. So here goes…

No, Mr President, it’s not cheaper data bundles and free internet access my children desire but those self same freedoms the generation of 1976 died for. My children want to become contributors towards building and positioning SA among the planetary trajectory of India, Singapore, Malaysia and China.

My children don’t want to be uprooted from the country of their birth and to enrich another. Your address was not even a promissory note that my children and their children hope one day soon to be honoured. Twenty-five years in power, 107 years in history find us still trapped on Robben Island.