LETTER: Let’s keep our covenant with Mandela on May 8
Why, 25 years on from the first democratic elections, are we repeating the same mistakes?
I am re-reading Martin Meredith’s book SA New Era — The 1994 Election, and 25 years later the issues are the same. Unemployment, poverty, corruption, mismanaged resources and so on. Joseph Cotterill’s opinion piece from the Financial Times weekend edition illustrates this point (Ramaphosa’s credibility on the line in ANC’s toughest electoral test, May 4). The economy is bleeding jobs, hunger is everywhere, dreams have been deferred and uncollected rubbish in our streets symbolises a failure of governance. Why, 25 years later, are we repeating the apartheid government’s mistakes? Why have we not learnt anything? What does democracy mean to the forgotten residents of Klaarstroom near Oudstoorn, who live in abject poverty in a country where political elites feast on caviar? What about the people of Hanover in the Northern Cape? No-one hears about them; democracy has left them behind. So many stories of betrayal. This must change. It does not matter which political party you vote for, w...
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