“Ek het daardie aand Suid-Afrika se toekoms gesien”

“Ek is nie meer bang om werklik te sê wat ek dink nie. Ek probeer dit nie meer in ’n politieke-soetlagie te verpak nie. Ek sal nou reguit sê wat ek dink.”

Só praat die ekonoom Dawie Roodt oor die regering nadat hy erg beseer is in ’n rooftog by sy huis in die ooste van Pretoria.

Hoewel hy met sy lewe daarvan afgekom het, ly hy steeds onder die nagevolge van die aanval. Roodt het ook ’n ope brief geskryf oor sy aanval, en die toekoms van Suid-Afrika.

Roodt en sy familie is oorrompel, vasgebind en gedreig deur drie gewapende mans wat hulle in hul huis in ‘n veiligheidsdorp beroof het.

“Ek het in my kantoor gesit en werk, dit was so half-agt die aand, besig om ’n artikel te skryf toe my dogter ingestap kom met drie ouens saam met haar – een ou met ’n rewolwer, een ou met ’n mes en een ou met ’n panga,” vertel Roodt.

Roodt het onmiddellik besef wat aangaan,die drie gevra om kalm te bly en onderneem om sy samewerking te gee.

“Hulle het my dogter en my vrou gaan haal, met die twee kleintjies. Die twee kleintjies is nou twee jaar oud. Hulle het ons (Roodt en sy dogter Danielle) na die sitkamer gevat en hulle het ons vasgebind met ‘cable ties’, ons monde toegebind en geblinddoek ook. Hulle het my vrou gelos want sy moes na die kleintjies omsien.”

Die drie boewe het Roodt se huis deursoek en gevat wat hulle ook al kon kry. Een van hulle wou weet: “Where’s the money?! Where’s the money?!”

Hulle het algaande minder geduldig begin word en aggressief geraak.

“Op een stadium toe gaan die krag uit. Ek het gesien hierdie gaan ’n baie lang aand wees. Hulle het begin dreig om die kleintjies seer te maak,” vertel Roodt.

“Toe, op een kol, sê ek vir die een ou dat ek geld het buite in my kar en hom oortuig om saam met my te gaan. Hy vat my toe geblinddoek buitentoe en toe ons buite kom, sukkel hy om die ‘garage’ se deur oop te kry oor die krag af was.

“Toe kry ek dit reg om my hande los te kry, en toe my hande los is, val ek hom aan, geblinddoek en al. In die proses (die boef het ’n mes by hom gehad) het hy my armspiere en my senuwee afgesny. Hy het toe gegil en vir sy buddies geskree en hulle het toe weggehardloop.”

Roodt het na sy bure gehardloop en hulp gevra. Toe hy terughardloop, het hy inmekaar gesak. Roodt het meer as ’n derde van sy bloed verloor. Sy dogter jaag toe met hom hospitaal toe.

Roodt was vir ’n paar dae in intensiewe sorg in die hospitaal. In die operasiesaal moes dokters sy hart weer aan die gang kry.

Roodt sê die ervaring het hom ’n nuwe perspektief en hernude moed gegee om teen die diepgewortelde probleme wat Suid-Afrika teister, te veg.

“Ek het drie ouens langs haar (Danielle) sien staan. Drie jong laaties. Gewapen. Hulle het waarskynlik nie ’n kwalifikasie nie. As hulle het, het hulle waarskynlik swak onderwys gehad, of moontlik niks,” vertel hy.

“Hulle is waarskynlik onindiensneembaar en hulle is gewelddadig. Ek het op ’n manier Suid-Afrika se toekoms daar gesien, behalwe as ons iets daaraan doen.”

Roodt meen Suid-Afrika se toekoms is in die hande van sy mense en dat die huidige regering die land ondergrawe.

“Ons moet sorg dat ons die regte politieke leierskap het, nie die spul wat ons vandag het nie. Die wat ons met minagting hanteer. Ons moet sorg dat ons onderwysstelsel van die beste in die wêreld is,” sê Roodt.

“Dan moet ons sorg dat daar geen hindernisse in die plek van werkskepping is nie. Ons moet sorg dat ons ’n staatsdiens het wat professioneel en effektief is, en nie die staatsdiens wat ons vandag het nie.”

“Kyk na Eskom. Kyk na die Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens. Kyk na PetroSA. Kyk na die Departement van Onderwys. Elke een van die staatsbeheerde organisasies en staatsdepartemente is ’n gemors. Omtrent elke een. Dít is wat ons moet aanspreek.”

Intussen is Roodt terug by die werk. Sy eerste dag terug op kantoor was toevallig ook die eerste aand dat hy weer behoorlik kon slaap, sê hy.

Hy hoop om binne ’n jaar weer volle beheer van sy linkerarm te hê, maar die letsels van die aand bly op sy lyf — en in sy gemoed.

Roodt se ope brief:

I choose the greater fear

A letter to my fellow South Africans – all of them

• By Dawie Roodt

We all have our fears and the fear of personal injury must rank right up there for most of us – certainly for me. The greatest fear for me is to be confronted by my two paramount fears at the same time: the fear of personal injury and the fear of injury to my loved ones. My greatest fear is not the possible injury as such, it is the fear of having to choose between these two fears. If it should ever happen, will I fear more for my own life or will I fear more for the lives of my loved ones?

I found out.

Two weeks ago I was working in my study at home. My wife was bathing the two-year-old twins and our eldest daughter was on her way home from university. It was about half past seven on a cold winter’s evening.

My daughter appeared in the door of my study with me hardly noticing and instead of the normal ‘hallo pappa’ she just said ‘pappa’. The strange tone of her voice made me look up. Next to her was a young man – young, her age – subtly showing me the revolver in his hand. There were three. They waited in the garage for her.

My daughter looked at me for some kind of guidance – my beautiful clever little girl – I saw her. And for a moment I also saw the future of this country standing next to her: young, poor, uneducated, unemployable and violent: the flotsam and jetsam of a failed society.

Our ordeal had begun.

Not much happened initially. We were told to be quiet, we were tied up, gagged and blindfolded. We were good hostages. Once we were immobilised they took turns unhurriedly exploring our home, gathering the easy pickings: cell phones, laptops – that kind of thing.  Now and again they would ask for ‘’the guns’’, ‘’the money’’ and ‘’the safe’’. Gradually these questions became more frequent and more intense. ‘’We will ask the babies were the money is!’’

It was going to be a long night …

The power went off, startling them. The questioning became more urgent, ‘’where’s the money?’’. The threats became more explicit, the pushing around more forceful. My moment had come, I had to choose my fear.

I convinced the one with the knife that I had money in my car if he would only allow me to show him. Eventually I was led outside. He battled to open the garage door. I heard the babies cry.

I succeeded in getting my hands loose. Standing there, hands loose, but held behind my back. My moment was now, choose your fear this instant and then live with it! The right moment shows itself. I attack him, I hit him, I hold onto him as he tries to escape, I fight for what is mine – I choose the greater fear.

He whimpered as he tried to escape my grip, slashing my arm, cutting through muscles and sinews and scoring a wide wound on my head. He escaped from my clutches, but not from his fear. He ran screaming from a wounded man; I will be his nemesis from now on. But I chose and conquered the greater fear.

I do not share this because I am a hero. A hero would have acted sooner, more successfully, more precisely, more accurately. I share this because I made a choice and I know we must make a choice. For the moment to choose our fear is now, for the sake of our country. I urge you to choose your fear.

Many fears lay ahead for me that night. Some fears I chose, some were chosen for me. I ran for help. My neighbours immediately reacted to my alarm. I ran back, over the wall again, over the bridge again, up the veranda stairs just to collapse at our front door as I saw my family. I had been saved, but my body was running out of blood!

My daughter was a hero, getting me to hospital in her car. Our gardener, also a hero, protected and helped where he could. Our neighbours took in my family. I was driven to hospital lying in my own blood and falling in and out of consciousness. The hospital staff were absolutely amazing. The emergency process worked like a dream. Well-oiled gears, competent hands, kind eyes.

I thought to myself, ‘’why would any government even think of changing this to the way the state provides medical support?’’. ‘’Why don’t they rather change the state’s medical system to what I have experienced?” I know I do not want to be part of the NHI.  I now know it will be just another disaster! Just like Eskom, SAA or PetroSA and so many more.

More fears and pain; a catheter, a woman – a black woman as it happens – washing me gently, in all my humble nakedness.  But I was saved and so was my family. A few days in ICU, a few hours in theatre, many units of blood and absolutely overwhelming support from all South Africa, then I was back home. Thank you! Thank you! Baie dankie! Nkosi!

Rehabilitation should take up to a year, they say.

Day two at home and the process of getting our lives together again, starts. Cell phones: ‘’You have to come in personally sir, that’s the law, it’s for your own protection’! Hours later, reams of forms of paper and still the government licensed, oligopolistic cell phone institution can’t get us connected. More forms, ‘for your protection sir’. With all of these laws and regulations supposedly designed to protect us, why is it so hard to get our stolen phones back?

I dread the prospect of facing the creaking bureaucracy, of getting new drivers’ licences. I know the wait that will follow, the incompetence, the not-so-subtle hints of bribes, the arrogance of the ‘’civil service’’.

All my friends ask me: ‘’will you leave?’’ At first I didn’t know, but now I do. I will not go! I will choose the greater fear. That night I saw evil, but I also saw so much more that is good in this country: my neighbours, my friends, business partners, the hospital, everybody –  everybody! – were just amazing. How can I leave my people, my people that I owe my life to? If we weigh the good against the bad, the good would be many times more than the bad in the country. All we need to do is know that we have more good than evil. It makes it easier when you choose your fear.

As an economist I know what the numbers tell us, but now I can also feel it in my bones, quite literally. I can see how this country is slowly deteriorating, how our institutions are held in contempt with only a few left standing intact, how our state owned enterprises are destroyed by incompetence, with a massive effect on the economy. I can see how corruption, nepotism, cronyism, incompetence and inferior leadership is leading this country into economic stagnation, unemployment, poverty, chaos and the eventual inevitability: the cesspit of a failed state, from where even those cancerous cells that created this environment can’t escape.

That evening I accepted being robbed, beaten, slashed, and even more, just like I have accepted our country being beaten and robbed. But then, that evening, I reached a threshold, some edge, where I refused to be treated like this anymore. I believe my action changed the future of my family for the better. We can also decide to do the same with the future of our country; I urge you!

Please: I am not advocating violence. I don’t even know if attacking an intruder is the right thing to do. But if I was able to choose my greater fear, I do know I can change the future of my family and my country, but we must do it together!

I don’t fear anymore, I’ve seen my fellow countrymen in action. I have seen their competence, their compassion and their care. I have seen and I have experienced their efficiency, their output, their spirit. I know I can trust them.

This is what must happen: forget about the NDP, NDR, IPAP and other abbreviations that are in any event not implemented. Three steps are all that is required.

• Start a process where all civil servants (SOE’s included) are required to reapply for their jobs. And henceforth only employ on merit, not by virtue of contacts, favours, social requirements or nepotism.
• Establish a world class skills development system (education) immediately to support a growing and thriving economy.
• Remove all obstacles to employment. Do not ‘’create jobs’’ but stop preventing willing people from creating their own jobs.

Don’t tell me it’s not possible, it has been done before. However, a very first step would be for all of us to hold our political leaders in office accountable for doing what is required. Political leaders who will choose their own greater fear.

Let us stand up. Let us walk together. Let us mobilise and refuse to do crime, be intimidated, bribe, and support corrupt leaders. Let’s oppose those cancerous cells!

Let us choose the greater fear for we are South Africans!