Wed May 22 13:27:06 SAST 2013
Wed May 22 13:27:07 SAST 2013

State of emergency needed to save the soul of South Africa

Apr 24, 2012 | Oupa Ngwenya | 24 comments

FOR President Jacob Zuma, life has been a continuous song to sing.

 Something is horribly wrong with a nation that is not outraged by the brutality against children 

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FOR President Jacob Zuma, life has been a continuous song to sing. On January 8 2012, the ANC turned 100.

Friends and foes could not deny the cause for celebration. The party came and left Bloemfontein on a celebratory note and is to come back yet again in December.

The return this time will not be a party. It will be a serious business from which to derive not only the policy direction for the party but also for this beloved country. Part of that business will end with who gets placed at the helm of the redemptive policy direction.

The country's policy direction affects us all, and it should be everybody's business to know what the ANC does or avoids to do; whether it lifts the bar to the skies of excellence or summarily buries all that is good about this country down the grave of shame.

The one thought the nation has in mind is not only to keep hope afloat but to decisively navigate the best that this nation can offer safely ashore. This is what December has in store for us.

But it is not yet December. It is still April, a month that has seen one celebration after another for the president.

One of Zuma's wives, Thobeka, turned 40 on April 5. The president was a jolly good fellow turning 70 on April 12. "Being a good person and loving one's enemies keeps one living until age 70," was Zuma's wise counsel. The lecture of life at 70 was not the last that April saw. The bells were ringing for him and Bongi Ngema for their wedding on April 21.

As has become tradition on such swinging occasions, the leading footwork of the president on the dance floor never misses a beat. Part of the nation savoured the moment with some hilarity and the other showed no emotion.

Not that the president must not laugh, dance and be merry.

He should equally be moved to get his leading presence felt by a bothered nation where some are endlessly celebrating the best time of their lives, while others curse their worst to a point of believing every day to be their last.

Something is horribly wrong - with a nation that only delights in the frequency of wedding bells, transfixed by smiling pictures and the thrill of presidential rhythmic happy feet on the dance floor, but is never outraged by the brutality against children, some of whom are hurt even before being born.

The examples are as gory as they are shocking. The nation is getting used to the horror.

A pregnant woman, Valencia Behrens from Randfontein, west of Johannesburg, had her unborn child cut out of her womb and was left for dead by another woman, Lorretta Cooke, so she could steal the baby. The surviving child, so dastardly separated from its mother, has a scar on its head.

If that did not move the nation, nothing will.

When 17-month-old baby Asanele's grave was being dug in the Western Cape last Thursday for burial after she was stabbed twice in the neck, seven boys were appearing for a 17-year-old girl's gang rape in Gauteng.

It is time celebrations stopped and a state of emergency declared to restore the nation's soul.

Comments

Wed May 22 13:27:07 SAST 2013 ::
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Apr 24, 2012

Papage

When people were hungry, the queen said let them eat cakes, that is exactly what Jacob Zuma is saying to the people of South Africa, he must go.
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Apr 24, 2012

tsayaya

it seems politicians become serious only when the situation affects them and their families directly, apart from that, its like everything is normal
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Apr 24, 2012

MommaC

As much as I agree that we have a serious problem that needs very urgent attention, I simply cannot see how Zuma getting married made a woman cut another woman's baby out of her womb or how Zuma's wifes party contributed to the gangrape of a 19 year old.

Maybe the author should try telling us what he believes Zuma should be doing about this.
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Apr 24, 2012

Kona

Momma, your brain seems to be on a go-slow. Don't you understand that Zuma is the head of state? Don't you understand that as the head of state he is the number opinion maker, by the virtue of his position? Don't you understand that the views of an opinion maker carry a lot of weight compared to those of the rank and file?

The least that Zuma can do is to show that he cares about what is happenning around him. By the look of things, he seems to be oblivious to the challenges facing our motherland. He comes accross as a person that is consumed by the trappings of his incumbency.By prouncing on current issues that are bedevilling the motherland, Zuma would be making a huge contribution towards addressing them. As a President, he cannot be "fiddling while Rome is burning" or he cannot be cutting birth day cakes and continously marrying, while the motherland needs him. He wanted to lead. Therefore he must lead. He can't lead in song only. He must come with solutions or at least tell us that he is noting what is happenning and they are doing something about it.

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Apr 24, 2012

Papage

He is on haneymoon and the nation needs him, the nation is burning while the President is making Babies.
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Apr 24, 2012

MommaC

Kona

What exactly can Zuma pronounce on without us all laughing at him?
He can't tell the nation that r@pe is wrong or HIV is a killer, as the kanga story will come up. He can't tell the nation that we shouldn't sleep around as the Khoza baby will come up. He can't tell the nation that we need to cut out corruption or the Shabbir laugh will come up.

The guy has zero credibility. His best option is to shut up.
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Apr 24, 2012

McKena

I think Zuma is smilling because he does not know what else to do , has no ideas no fore thought , no vision. They smile to mask the blank mind they possess. As for eating cake UP and DOWN in April its just a shame i call him the president of SA. But I can tell you that "Kuzophela sizofana sonke". I wish I can fast track this year to see him voted out as an ANC president and the president of the country.
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Apr 24, 2012

Catswhiskers

Hi MommaC
I think what the author is saying in a roundabout way is that while Zuma is celebrating, his people are suffering/dying.
Has anyone noticed that not one word has been said by the president regarding the horrible incidents which are happening in SA over the last few weeks. His silence is deafening. The reason this country is in the state it is in is because we lack leadership - someone who sticks by his promises, and, instead of talking about corruption, doing something drastic to stop it. The new minister of public works has admitted that his department is in a state of chaos due to mismanagement, corruption, looting, - why was it allowed to get into this state? Is there no-one with one iota of integrity in the ruling party?
I hear more rhetoric from President Obama than I do from our own president!
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Apr 24, 2012

Catswhiskers

I think this country would make a huge mistake is Zuma was allowed a second turn. But does anyone have any suggestions for a better president - one coming from the dysfunctional ANC I mean.
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Apr 24, 2012

MommaC

Hi Catswhiskers.

I hear and understand that. I just don't know what he could say. As I mentioned above, there isn't much he can pronounce on with any credibility at all. That is the price we pay for having a bunch of fools plonk a deeply unsuitable individual in the top chair.

He pronounces on what he knows and what he is know for - collecting females for his harem.
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