GARETH VAN ONSELEN: And so, we have come to expect disappointment
ON August 6, after a year without load shedding, Eskom produced a radio advert to celebrate that fact. It claims the milestone is indicative of a public utility that delivers. The tone of the deep, rolling voice on the radio resounds with triumph. Douglas Adams wrote about the long, dark tea-time of the soul. It is a wonderfully evocative expression; apposite too in describing SA’s current condition. "A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life," says Adams. "Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment." Eskom might argue otherwise. It has managed to find, in a failure of catastrophic economic impact and significance, a reason to celebrate. Disappointment, then, is capable of bearing a fruit all of its own. Look around and SA has a rich harvest. The country’s grand expectations are easy enough to map. Most have at their heart a number: 1994. It has become a metonym for dreams and aspirations alike. Imbued with a thousand related connotations and clichés, it exists now on an...
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