Disillusion with the shameless denial of the deterioration gripping SA

THOUGH not inclined to engage in extravagant gestures of kissing the ground, my love for this country is not less than those who do. To some, the gesture may be a genuine demonstration of ultimate reverence to the soil. To others, it is a calculated routine of deceitful exhibitionism.

And between reverence and deceit lies the truth about the good or bad motives that propel people gunning for positions, leadership and power.

Some do it to change the world for the good of humanity. Others do it to prey on the unsuspecting goodwill that there is in the world for own end, selfish comfort and personal glory.

Blaming power, for the evil that people do, is not helpful in the search for the truth. Powerlessness is not a virtue. Power cannot make saints out of evil doers and peddlers either.

"There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it," says John Acton.

The search for the truth begins with the first step of establishing the motives that drive people doing the unbelievable things they soon acquire the rude habit of repeating once they are power.

Bad things done in office had probably long taken root, as common practice, even before their holders came to occupy them.

Lopsided logic tells them they are there to be served than to serve.

It is as if their offices were meant to reward mediocrity and to penalise excellence. Hard work and success is none of their concern.

They have ceased to reflect or to imagine a future beyond constraints of self-aggrandisement.

The dreams that flicker in the tiny hearts of children neither touch them nor move their feet to act with urgency against a soulless society that is destined to put the joys of childhood to wholesale sacrifice.

With eyes fixated on their bellybuttons, they neither bother where the country is headed nor concerned about how the future would look like, even for their children. For them, the beginning and end of power is now and solely for their comfort.

The disdainful neglect to serve, the rush to add the zeroes to their banking accounts without evidence of work, the stampede for instant good life, and the scramble for positions outweighing by far their capability is the defining feature of their democracy.

And the unaccountable power they delight to boss and toss their subordinates about makes nonsense of all the lofty reasons people gave to wage the struggle for liberation, justice, peace and equality.

This is the corrosive spectacle that Acton had reason to warn us against: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

But over time, the evil that men and women plan and do, in the name of the good offices they hold, gradually gets exposed with the truth that cannot be suppressed forever.

As the truth gets to the open, the borrowed robes of respectability that the corrupt had used to cover their naked and underhanded schemes, soon proves them to be shameless emperors without clothes.

Sadly, a growing sense of disillusionment with the shameless denial of the deterioration gripping the country has generally begun to paint everyone, even star performers in government, with the same brush.

But dismiss not the ANC's Gwede Mantashe for calling on the spotlight to be equally beamed on the excesses running amok outside government.

The private sector is equally culpable for buying and selling corruption.

Until every leader with a position and in power turns things around, there will be few lips left to kiss the ground as an expression of love for our beautiful land.