LETTER: SA’s national ethos falls short

Former president Thabo Mbeki, in his recent Albert Luthuli Memorial Lecture, castigated deployees of the ruling party who use their positions of power to serve themselves and not the people.

The question they and their handlers ask is: what’s in it for us? Building up an enterprise or state department to better serve the people is not their agenda. Short of using the word itself, Mbeki called the ethos of the ANC into question. In fact, he has been consistent in this accusation over 20 years. We must take note.

Our underlying problem is not simply “corruption”. Humans are naturally prone to corruption, and this must be constrained by an ethos or value system that places others ahead of self. Unless we grasp this nettle and admit that our national ethos falls short, we will never build the better life we aspire to.

As Mbeki quoted in his lecture, the nature of the selfless humanitarian ethos within our grasp on this great continent was spelt out by Chief Albert Luthuli. We have abandoned the aspirations of Luthuli and his great predecessors, Pixley ka Isaka Seme and Tiyo Soga. This deficiency in our national ethos manifests not only in cadre deployment, but also in the wholesale looting and sabotage of the rail infrastructure.

Let us admit that we have a sickness in the heart of our liberated society. As William Blake has it: “O rose thou art sick”.

Willem Cronje, Cape Town

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.