One year ago we were struggling under a corrupt president and many were despondent. The nation held hands across all divides, resulting in a new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who is well equipped to stop the wave of corruption and to redirect a huge ship.

Ramaphosa is doing precisely that in a focused manner despite opposition from those who benefited from the corruption and despite the desperate endeavours of Jacob Zuma to save his own skin.

For anyone interested, there is enough information available of what has been done already to end corruption, to take those responsible to task and to place our country on a healthy course again.

But no, many prefer to remain on the sidelines and to question and criticise all endeavours to correct the course as if "they" are the government and "we" are living in a different reality.

The focused and timely six-point plan that has just been released and in which the president's handwriting is clearly visible, is once again a shining example.

The familiar choir of critics spit their venom in the media and especially on social networks and summarily doom it to failure. The plan must be read within the context of the current realities facing our country and what is politically doable at this point in time - we do not find ourselves in the ideal world of the armchair critics.

Our nation successfully confronted many challenges in the past in spite of the tendency of many to always focus on the negative.

With the right attitude we can do it again. A winning spirit leads to a winning nation.

Dawie Jacobs

Sterrewag