LETTER: SA a disaster in the making

In the midst of the megalomaniacal madness of President Vladimir Putin and his corrupt Kremlin thugs, and the hesitancy or inability of “Western” democracies to dramatically blunt his narcissist personal and geopolitical ambitions for fear of armed confrontation, SA needs to reflect on the mental mindset of some of our own dodgy politicians and citizens and the deleterious impact they could have on our constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the future peaceful economically stable coexistence between citizens.

On the one hand we have an increasingly dull, dithering and weak-kneed president who seems unable to take any sort of confrontational decision that may offend someone or other, and who always falls back on compromise, consultation, mediation and negotiation that more often than not leads nowhere. In the case of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “decision to be undecided” reflects a leader bereft of common sense, reality, morality and courage who is, once again, scared to offend the dubious Brics alliance and some factions in his own party.

Lurking in the ranks of some political parties and other questionable civil organisations we have our own brand of self-serving megalomaniacal thugs who believe in anarchy, revolution, oppression and civil disorder as a means to their nefarious ends. They seek personal power and enrichment at all costs, even to the extent of destroying our constitutional democracy, the economy and our rule of law, and resort to racist, rabble-rousing rhetoric and lies to achieve this. A former president comes to mind, as does a faction within the ANC, activists from Black First Land First and Black Lives Matter, and the leader of the EFF and some of his sycophantic followers.

In the absence of the emergence of a strong political centre supported by a broadly inclusive, real, effective and implementable social compact between the government, business, civil society and labour, that isolates and ostracises those who seek to be their own Mickey Mouse versions of Putin, our country remains at risk of becoming another avoidable African political, social and economic disaster.

David Gant, Kenilworth

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