READER LETTER | We've descended into broken mess

As we enter election day in a few days, we are a pale shadow of what we were under our founder, the beloved Nelson Mandela.

We were the leaders of Africa because we had the moral high ground. We had values. We pledged allegiance to a nation with liberty and justice for all. Sadly,we have become divided into ideological tribes with leaders encouraging acrimony.

SA has lost its moral compass. We have abandoned the lofty philosophical goals that created our nation from the ashes of apartheid. Today we are leaderless and voiceless. We are in despair.

What in the world has happened to our rainbow nation? We are in a dysfunctional mess. As our society becomes one of rot, behaviour and principles of many these days become rotten as well.

Our nation's rapid descent into financial ill-gotten greed is undoubtedly leading the country into a calamitous future. We are steering off course onto the broad road leading to destruction comparable to the one ancient Rome travelled upon that led to their demise.

After riding high on the waves of democracy that began with freedom in 1994, recent disturbing and painful events in governance unsettle those whose dream of a country free of rampant and audacious corruption is shattered by leaders who are in utter denial.

We are grimly witnessing the strangulation of our democracy.

Farouk Araie, Benoni