As 2014 draws to a close, most will agree that the time has flown, but we were not having all that much fun.
Although there has been good news – like the the plummeting oil price, SA’s Rolene Strauss winning the Miss World title (a first for our country in 40 years) and Chad le Clos emerging as the world’s best swimmer,, other headlines have been much less encouraging.
Rolling power blackouts, the Nkandla fiasco, government’s corruption scandals, bogus qualifications as well as spates of protests and cabinet clashes that had even the New York Times dubbing it ‘South Africa’s Parliamentary Revolution’, have instilled little faith for a promising future.
When the very house of supreme democracy lands itself in bloody brawls and riot police ‘manhandles’ a female MP, it makes one wonder if the very pillar of democracy has finally started to crumble.
And despite the public’s ongoing outcry about high crime, unemployment and poverty, the ruling party still insists it ‘has a good story to tell’ as this year’s election marked 20 years since South Africans went to the polls to vote for democracy in 1994.
Many felt the 20-year review speech, delivered two months before the elections, painted an idealistic sunny picture of a country battling to weather its volatile environment and stormy economic climate.
Zuma promised the review will be used to ‘give effect to the long-term NDP (National Development Plan)’ by 2030 and achieve ‘the South Africa that we had envisioned when we all first voted in 1994’.
But still, it seemed to have lowered, not lifted eyebrows.
Opposition parties and residents called for action, rather than words.
Africa Check went on to probe the accuracy of claims made by politicians, political parties and public institutions with suspicions of ‘dodgy data’, including crime figures.
They found Zuma’s claims that serious crimes, such as murders, have reduced in the past five years, were ‘selective and misleading’.
In fact, violent crimes people fear most went up, with murder and attempted murder cases increasing for the second consecutive year, they said.
So the question persists: when will South Africa’s leaders stand up and put their foot down on the never-ending sugar-coating to stop the rot eating away at the true potential of this beautiful country?
As we are about to open the door on 2015, this is the perfect opportunity for leaders and citizens to pick between resolutions or revolution.
The future is up to us.
