The year 2019 was a turbulent one for our strife-torn, violent country. Toxic politics dominated the political landscape as earth-shattering revelations triggered off seismic quakes in political circles.

We will be classified as a failed state in 2020 unless we drastically change course. Over the past 25 years, 30 institutions comprising government departments, private mega companies, law firms, banks and accounting firms, shamelessly enriched themselves with ill-gotten gains, and as a result decimated our strong economy, reducing it to a shell-less entity. They stealthily dismantled a world-class industrial and economic powerhouse.

Our hard-won democracy is caught in an unending spiral of decadence. Acts of thievery have become our pastime. The elite employ the services of high-powered lawyers to delay their days of reckoning. Our elected leaders have betrayed us over the past 25 years. This embattled and paralysed nation can no longer seek solace and succour in their bosoms.

Corruption has now made its masterpiece in this wounded country, and the most sacrilegious rape of our resources has broken the nation's vault and stolen our national pride and dignity, courtesy of our deceitful and discredited leaders as we grope in need and suffer from pains inflicted by shameless leaders who are virtually neck-deep in corruption and are hopeless in dealing with it. Next year will be a grim one for the impoverished citizens of Mzansi as we slide into economic oblivion.

Farouk Araie, Johannesburg