Open letter to the ANC and others . . .

Believe it or not the majority of my friends here in South Africa do have a desire to live together freely and safely in a mixed society and want this country to succeed and to grow and to attract the attention of the world through good honest governance and hard work. After all we have so much to offer the world on so many levels – but we also have a great deal to lose and this is what is worrying for many of us!
We know that we are composed of peoples of many different cultures and it’s never easy crossing those divides but a great number of us are trying. You just take a look at the church groups, the NGO’s and the NPO’s – composed of people of all colours of the rainbow, especially the previously advantaged, wanting to assist in providing a better life for others – to know that.
Please accept that I am not being patronising when I point out that you have been governing this country for 20 years now and in that time a huge amount of good work has been done in the rural areas for millions of marginalised people (the legacy of apartheid) and no one with common sense would have expected you to miraculously turn the country around in that time.
And of course there had to be, for a period of time, some sort of affirmative system in place to redress the wrongs of the past and give previously disadvantaged persons opportunities to grow and contribute.
And of course we who were previously advantaged now have to willingly work through a new self-imposed dispensation – even into the new generation. Hopefully others of my generation take certain responsibility for the inequality the new government had to deal with at that time.
But what no person wants is the crime, fraud, undeserved bloated salaries, corruption and self-enrichment of the few at the expense of the majority – because then you’re no different to those who ruled before.
And don’t take offence when all upstanding and honest people of all colours admire and support Thuli Madonsela, not because she is labelled as working against the ANC, but because she rightly upholds the law and respects our constitution and is diligent in carrying out her duties. Oh how we wish that all government departments would follow suit. It’s what any people in any country would want and has nothing to do with racial prejudices.
Sadly President Zuma has not shown the leadership qualities that this country and its people deserve at this crucial time in its history. His morals and standards do not set the example we need and right now my Nobel Prize would go to any leader in this current government who would have the courage to stand up and say that enough is enough and things have to change – even at the expense of losing her or his position. True statesmen and leaders do that sort of thing or they become part of the system.
The time has come for our government to take heed of what is right for the people and not for its self-enrichment. Those in positions of power in municipalities, state run institutions and the like should swallow their pride, curb their greed, work at removing the racial millstone around their necks and start working closer with those of other colours in trade and industry and education etc. in order to utilise their vast expertise, experience and knowledge.
I’m talking about the likes of people of the ilk of Professor Jonathan Jansen in education as an example and of course the many other experts in their fields who have so much to offer in improving the quality of our society but are prevented from doing so because of the colour of their skin or because of their vocal opposition to those things they see as being harmful to the progress and unification in our country. Sounds familiar doesn’t it.
I have a great love for this country and its people but we now seem to be on a slippery slope and the sands of time are running out for all of us.
So I hope and pray that certain good men or women leaders will do something, so that evil will not prosper.
This is what Nelson Mandela once said –
“I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people”
Oh, to one day hear those words spoken again by a true leader or president in South Africa – of whatever colour.

CLIFF HATT
Zinkwazi