Cool heads needed to take us out of this mess

EVER since our liberators came to power in 1994, nothing was and will ever be spared by unco-operative forces to unseat them, by hook or by crook, even if it means taking our country down.

Our country had numerous chances to correct its course away from narrow, selfish destinations, but 1994 was our last chance to set our course correctly once and for all.

Unfortunately, what was decided at Codesa was not carried out by all participants. Some went there in bad faith only to carry on with their old ways.

Unfortunately, it was never foreseen that things could go wrong as they did, as we can see all around us, begging the questions: Where did we go wrong? And, how do we correct it?

Didn't the Nobel Commission reward our two leaders, Madiba and FW de Klerk, jointly with the Nobel Peace Prize, surely for us to continue with nation-building on such a firm foundation?

Didn't Madiba offer the hand of peace, reconciliation and forgiveness, at tremendous cost to himself, to all parties represented at Codesa to help them govern our country in a Government of National Unity?

Only the NP and the IFP accepted, but only as it suited them until they went their selfish ways again, the NP quickly disappearing.

Where are we now? First, the Conservative Party, then the AWB, then the Boeremag, the latter two trying to derail the new dispensation by force.

Simultaneously, the DA is going their own way, hell-bent to wrest power as they still try to do, their credibility in tatters.

They must have been in courts with frivolous issues more than a 100 times, wasting valuable finances, sourced from our mineral wealth, money that could have improved people's lives, as the Freedom Charter directs.

As we became the laughing stock of the world, with no fewer than 537 parties all trying to ascend the political throne, calling the governing party the “Goliath” party, the elephant in the room, the elephant that must be devoured bit by bit. Are they all then the Davids that must save us, led by the Pied Piper DA, EFF?

If we further analyse the political arena in Parliament, two of those 14 parties are still hell-bent on protecting the rights of the wealthy and formerly advantaged groups at the expense of the marginalised poor. But these wolves in sheep's clothing have pulled the wool over their voting-fodder so tightly they cannot see the precipice these Judas goats are leading them to.

Since 1959, the PAC first broke away from the liberating party, then the IFP in 1975 when all Struggle leaders were either jailed on Robben Island or were in exile.

After 1994 the rest of its step-children came: ACDP, UDM, Cope, EFF, Agang, AIC, ATM, others falling by the wayside or lurking outside in the cold. The DA and IFP also produced their fair share of step-children.

Where is all this madness going to end? What was the initial cause? Aren't we all committed to a better life for all?

Why would some still insist on their own little corners of our country in the form of Oranias, enclaves for themselves, shutting out all the other troublesome “refugees”. It would have been far better to have done away with these vast, unsustainable, bulky provinces of the apartheid era.

Shouldn't we rather have divided our country into 50 smaller provinces like other countries, around our metros and big towns? Later, each could have had its own airport, university etc.

Now, selfish groups are running to our mother countries and the UN, drumming up support and sympathy from right-wing groups with all sorts of misrepresentations of so-called genocide of their ethnic group, never acting sincerely and honestly.

They are openly playing with fire by calling for referendums, not national, but provincial, opening up a new can of worms for the death penalty, land, language and property rights, wealth tax, to be brought back through the back door.