Democracy in retreat: Magaqa’s murder shows the cost of silence and apathy

The confessions by a hitman in the case of former secretary-general of the ANC Youth League Sindiso Magaqa once again reminds us that absolute power corrupts – and it also kills.

The looting and corruption within our community and political leaders has become more brazen.

We have normalised the looting of the state’s coffers, while the poor get poorer, and the country is going nowhere.

Magaqa, Mbhekiseni “Pat” Khumalo and Kwazukwakhe Mkhize are just some of the people who have lost their lives due to the political onslaught that continues in this country.

How far have we come when blood is still spilled mercilessly for political reasons? It is not just the killings, but the lack of maturity from our political leaders and the lack of service delivery.

Another concern is the moral compass that loses its position – and even the growing political intolerance that was once unacceptable and now has made our democracy its home away from home.

Exposés on our political figures should be shocking us to the core. The mismanagement of the public purse should have us enraged.

ALSO READ: Former ANC Youth League SG Sindiso Magaqa’s killer pleads guilty

The failure of the state to deliver on basic services should have the public voicing their disdain through the will of the people.

But we have opted to be keyboard warriors who cannot do more than type, post and share. We are too lazy to mobilise for change in a society that is not working for us.

The state of South Africa has remained unchanged. For one born just at the end of apartheid – at the very brink of the endless possibilities of democracy – the state of the nation is demoralising.

If we remember that feeling of going into the voting booth, then we would remember the power that rest with our voting rights.

There are so many realms where a country must do introspection: have the rights of the minority been diminished in the emergence of a voice for the majority, no matter the lack of resources available to that majority?

Has the safety, security and the recognition of an equal society for women and girls become something that can be an agenda at round-table discussions and considered of grave importance so the midnight oil is burned with the determination to do right?

Is children’s safety our concern; are the youth becoming employable in the changing society; are we growing as a nation or are we stuck where these stalwarts and their equals have left us?

NOW READ: Former Stellenbosch deputy mayor Nyaniso Jindela shot dead