South Africa. A place of radiant beauty and extreme hardship.
Today hit me differently, I am struggling to find the find the words to describe what I felt as I drove back from Cape Town this evening on the N2. One either side of the road, that was lit up by the headlights of numerous cars that travelled in either direction, the homes of people living in Khayelitsha lay in darkness. And when I say darkness, I mean pitch, pitch black. The type of darkness that one experiences in the dead of night when you in the middle of nowhere, not a darkness that one expects to see when driving along a highway on the out skirts of a city.
South Africa is not in a good way. We are in a very deep hole and with winter approaching it’s about to get even deeper.
In September last year, while I was sitting on a bench during a trip abroad and thinking deeply about the space South Africa was in. I wrote a piece title “Times are dark and challenging”. In it, I asked the leaders of South Africa to stand up. Months have passed and little has been done to improve the access to opportunity that the large majority of South Africa’s have.
As I wrote last year, I believe that we have the ability, the character, and the humanity to change. The leadership we need though is not going to come from the state, it is going to require something special from everyday South African’s. Why do I say this you may ask?
If we wait for our failing state to try get their act together we will continue to be disappointed. We can no longer tolerate living in an environment where people are being left without access to opportunity. Access to opportunity starts with the provision of basic services, improving the quality of life, and the ability to engage with information.
The immensity of the task at hand means that we need to start today. The longer we wait, the more insurmountable the challenge will appear, and part of me fears that one day it might been too great to overcome.
Open your eyes. The days of making change someone else’s problem have long past. No one is going to do this for us, we are going to have to do it ourselves.
Those who know me well, know that I am optimistic about the future despite the ever-mounting challenges that we face both locally and on a global stage. While I remain optimistic, I am also very realistic and I am deeply concerned that we are running out of time.
People have the ability to solve problems. We have proven this over and over again through out history. However, we will not solve the problems we are facing today if we do not give people access to opportunities.
Cynics will not build the future, but the future will also not build itself.
