EDITOR – The South African Constitution is supposed to be the “light-house” guiding every citizen on what his/her rights are and what entitlements and responsibilities accrue to every citizen.
When the ordinary citizen seeks out these very entrenched rights the response from the government is that there is a “culture of entitlement” and they proceed defensively to blame a third force, usually “white monopoly capital” or apartheid and now more recently the opposition parties, who are accused of trying to destabilise the state.
Where does the “blame game” stop when the very leaders, who are supposed to be rolemodels for the man in the street, cannot behave responsibly or in some cases just be accountable as is required of their jobs. In the past few days we all have witnessed the shenanigans of the Tshwane Municipal Council, with councillors throwing bottles of water at each other, which descended into a full scale street brawl, then the eThekwini Municipal Council that were debating why R761 000 was spent on the funeral of the late businessman Mr Don Mkwanazi, the SABC's decision to re-appoint the COO, Mr Hlaudi Motsoneng to the post of Chief Executive-Corporate Affairs, notwithstanding a high court ruling that his appointment as COO must be set aside. This decision of the SABC Board flies in the face of the ANC led government,which was very vociferous about the need for the Board to respect the rule of law and then the enquiry into the SAA regarding salaries and perks enjoyed by the pilots which exceeds 50 per cent of the total operational budget.
On the higher education front we've witnessed debates on television about the crisis and heard students accusing their vice-chancellor of having gone AWOL, with one student leader even saying that the only time they see their vice-chancellor is when they switch on the television. That very same vice-chancellor, in an exclusive interview on TV, described the job of the vice-chancellor as the worst job ever and even conceded that vice-chancellors are not trained to deal with such protests on campuses. We had the unpleasant experience to learn that DUT students threw “poo” into computer labs – and that method of protest has been learnt from the comrades in the Western Cape, who have patent rights to this kind of atrocious behaviour.
In a country where the rule of law is disrespected to the extent reflected above the only space left is for anarchy to take hold. It's time for our so called leaders to lead and not be led by the restless, frustrated and disillusioned masses and be held to ransom to the temper and temperament of the disenchanted.
Sicario
Durban
