ARE WE FREE OR ARE “DOM?” (STUPID)
Each time general elections and Freedom Day celebrations are afoot, optimists among us citizens of this country are quick to invoke a spirit of revelry and fanfare; telling anyone within earshot that we should consider ourselves fortunate indeed that we are living in a country such as South Africa. But those who are cynical among us would sneer at the touted revelry and fanfare, and ask cheekily: Are we free or are we “dom”? (stupid).
Before I can answer either way regarding the question posed by the cynics,
I think it would be best to take a very casual and not scientific look at what is happening in South Africa on a daily basis. Here we go.
Spaza shops are owned by foreigners and some of them sell expired products with impunity.
The borders of the country are open, and criminals come in and go out of this country willy-nilly because there is apparently a law that prevents the government from shutting down those damn borders.
A white racist would in any given day bliksim (beat up) a black person and in some instances kill them like he was reminding us that the white man was still in charge of this country and that the freedom we espouse is a myth.
In terms of Employment Equity policy of the government, a white woman is ranked higher than a black man who was oppressed in the days of apartheid and actually had to fight for the liberation of this country.
A white woman benefited from the proceeds of his father’s whiteness during the apartheid days, but the present-day government regards her as a victim who needs to get empowered economically while a previously oppressed black man deserves to be ignored in this regard.
A tender system to procure services for the public is used whereby beneficiaries of these tenders openly overcharge the government for such services, flaunt their ill-gotten wealth on TV and on social media, and then go and spend much of this wealth in cities like Dubai.
It boggles my mind that all political parties in this country, whose members are perennial beneficiaries of this tender system, can’t realise that this damn system is morally wrong as it empowers only a few individuals at the expense of the rest of the citizens of the country.
My oh my, I always feel like kicking myself each time I hear a politician speaking about inequality, poverty and unemployment.
This as the tender system, which all politicians in this country across the board support dearly, is the carrier and merchant of inequality, poverty and unemployment.
Let’s be practical here: Joe Soap earns a lower than inflation salary which is also below the minimum wage as prescribed by labour where he works at a factory.
In contrast, Comrade Skhundla-khalela (opportunist) and his white friends for whom he works as a “front” earn billions and billions of rand in tender contracts and pay “kickbacks” to corrupt politicians and officials.
Now will there ever be equality between Joe Soap on the one hand and Skhundla-khalela and his white friends on the other? This money that is being spent on inflated tender contracts should actually be paid out by the government as.
“Apartheid war reparations” to all the victims of apartheid and all the people who were oppressed by the system because of their colour.
Politicians of all colour, white people and celebrities in this country prefer to employ foreigners instead of local citizens.
And taking us for fools, the aforementioned groups of people would make a noise about poverty and lack of employment in the country.
Electricity cables are stolen and damaged every now and then, unnecessarily plunging residents of various areas country-wide into darkness.
As to why no security is ever provided to safeguard the damn cables is unfathomable.
Now venturing into showbiz, one discovers with sadness that a run-of-the-mill soapie like Generations is still flighted on TV and this has been happening since 1994.
My question in this regard is: Is Generations creator Mfundi Vundla the only talented TV writer in this country? When are other TV writers going to get a chance to showcase their stuff on TV? Is the SABC not denying other TV writers employment opportunities by insisting on screening Vundla’s soapie every day since the dawn of democracy? Is this a classic example of an “evergreen” contract as practiced widely in government/business relationships?
Now to go back to the question attributed to cynics at the beginning of this column, namely “Are we free or are we ‘dom?”‘ my answer is we are free because we can vote, breath, go wherever we want without restrictions, express ourselves intellectually and culturally and enjoy freedom of religion.
But we are “dom” to allow the aforementioned shenanigans to happen under our watch