LUCKY NKHOMA | SA needs diligent leaders and not robust criminals

A thriving nation is often dependent on leaders that are forthright in terms of their value system. We need to take stock of the current crop of leaders in SA.

Are we certain that if people vote for the party, they will be in good faith or are we about to take a path that’s far more deplorable than the one we are on currently, 30 years into democracy?

What does it even mean to celebrate 30 years of democracy if some of the people still live in squalor and use pit toilets? Have we really fallen short in 30 years of the budget to allocate money to relieve South Africans from not having adequate water resources and enough shelter? What has really happened that can be celebrated without adding a spanner in the works or frowning before we even finish a sentence?

Let’s talk infrastructure, roads, dams and power stations. Where can we attribute the most advancement in the last 30 years or 60 years going back in time to the dreadful apartheid years?

How do you begin to talk about 30 years of freedom in the Western Cape where people of colour have gone into an abyss of suffering and abject poverty? Where it is normal for people to kill each other because they have no sense of direction in why they co-exist with other human beings? We need to have a sobering conversation about the ills of SA and the way we have swept all the dirt under the carpet.

What has SA really done to ensure it is the land of milk and honey for all? How is it that we call Nigerians foreigners but rejoice at Europeans settling in our country in the name of foreign direct investment? How did it happen that we negated our borders and have millions of foreign nationals unaccounted for roaming the streets of Langa, Diepsloot, Phillipi and Hillbrow?

How has the department of home affairs and police missed this important assignment of guarding our borders? I draw inspiration from all our sporting teams who have been incredible and the artists winning “Grammy after Grammy” and doing well on the global stage.

This proves we are a country that’s been winning outside but back home our politicians have been behaving like children at kindergarten, who require supervision and nurturing.

We have been ravaged by corruption and maladministration of the worst kind with billions going unaccounted for and no prosecutions whatsoever. All we have heard are excuses and reasons why we should continue voting because we were liberated from suffering.

We are a country under siege and desperately need the momentum in our arts and sports to roll over and bring a fresh wind to blow over our misfortunes. How have we gotten to a point of looking to ex-convicts to liberate us from an immoral justice system that seeks to further oppress citizens as opposed to advancing their cause of living freely in their country?

Soon we will know when we go to the ballot boxes, and I urge all of us to personally think back to 30 years ago and determine if we are better off or worst off from where we were in 1994.

I do understand this exercise can only be critically done by those who would have been five or six years old in 1994 when SA went to the polls to elect a new democratic leadership for the birth of the rainbow nation.

The wise always say history has a funny way of repeating itself. But as scholars of history always say, if you do not learn from your past, can you really contribute meaningfully to the future? I submit, good leadership can transform any society anywhere in the world. SA needs diligent leaders and not robust criminals who are hungry for power and money.

■ Nkhoma is a business leader with a track record in public relations, marketing, and communications