We do have a ‘good story’
MONDAY MAY 5 2014
THE PRESIDENT has been at pains to tell us of “the good story” that South Africa, and perhaps more pertinently the ANC, has to tell in the run-up to the important, some say watershed, 20th anniversary of our democratic liberation – and our fifth elections.
Jacob Zuma is absolutely correct. We do have a fantastic story to tell as a nation. It’s not about job creation; or getting textbooks to schoolkids, some of whom still labour under a tree for a classroom or use the bushes for a toilet; or even rolling out free antiretrovirals for those infected with HIV – it’s something far more basic than that.
We saw it this weekend. It is the fundamental truth that makes everything else possible. We are free to believe what we want. We are free to associate with whoever we want. We can even go where we want – with one notable exception. The only no-go area left in the country, after the ANC campaigned successfully in Bekkersdal at the weekend, is Luthuli House in the Joburg CBD, the ANC’s headquarters, and even then there’s no doubt Helen Zille could pop in for tea if she so wished, or anyone else on her executive, just not when they’re coming in their numbers all in blue.
Yesterday, the ANC pulled off one of its typical organisational feats, getting almost 100 000 people to FNB Stadium (with nary a boo or a jeer), breaking the hat-trick of humiliation that the pundits believed awaited Zuma.
Across the Jukskei, Julius Malema stuck to his guns and figuratively opened fire on all his foes, real and imagined, assassinating characters and boasting for all he was worth. The day before, Zille had wowed Northgate Dome.
That is our legacy. The seed that was sown 20 years ago has been cherished and now it has bloomed in all its diversity and beauty. We truly are free at last. And because of that, everything else is possible.