Neil de Beer
Johannesburg - As we sit again in the dark and see small and medium-sized businesses crumble under stage 6 load shedding, one can only but growl at the circus, the charade masked as an ANC conference and the re-election of the same captain of our Titanic.
Never-seen-before images of ill-discipline and huge rifts in what once was, under Madiba, a disciplined party but is now a true revelation of greed, factionalism and indeed dog-eat-dog, the conference was, again, divisive rather than galvanising our leaders into action for a better future for our country.
This was the first ANC conference I did not attend since departing the ANC, the party of my political birth, two years ago. As a loyal ex-veteran, I am sad that Nasrec 2022 proved me right. As we, the normal Joes, fight on to earn our daily bread, the absence of a state, a government to bail out entrepreneurs or small businesses, is as obvious as the Kimberley Big Hole.
No attempt, not the slightest plan, to buffer the failure of Eskom and the economic atom bomb of Covid-19. Just silence.
The only loud sound is the South African verbiage of load shedding, state capture and Phala Phala. The idea that the ANC went into election mode and left SA Pty Ltd rudderless and without a captain with substance is as clear as, well, the dark.
Cyril Ramaphosa taking the lead after a dismal performance during his first reign, had a huge race to run but only with the reshuffling of old horses to the top stable. Given that state-owned entities are broken, there’s a massive demoralising power failure, foreign direct investment is shattering and the country is tired and hopeless, the leadership has one of the most difficult mountains to climb.
If the past 28 years were a race and every 10 years the baton was passed on, no doubt as we track the athlete, we see the baton was dropped. Dropped by a ruling party, set on self-destruct and electing the same leadership, naively praying for a different outcome.
Having now again elected Ramaphosa as president of the ANC, the question must be: What will change? The simple answer is “nothing”. And as we stumble from one conference, commissions of inquiry and task teams to another, we, as a country, have no doubt got used to the voice of “my fellow South Africans”, with huge disgust and disbelief!
One wishes to end the year with a positive outlook for a new year, but just when we are fatigued by pictures of ANC comrades posted on every side of the media, we start 2023 as a build-up for 2024.
What South Africa needs now is not a nation in tatters but hope that change on many fronts will come. The hope is that every man and woman who lives in this country sees a future, sets aside fear and contains their inner anger towards a failed state.
The fact remains that in 2024, we will need to draw a line in the sand. We will face a huge Rubicon moment – either save a country from self-destructing or accept an unstoppable economic genocide under a ruling party that has dropped the baton.