I was intrigued by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba's use of a quote from a poem by Ben Okriin his medium-term budget policy statement this week. Perhaps more than he intended, the poem is quite poignant for South Africa and our perennial unwillingness or inability to get our act together. "Will you be at the harvest/ Among the gatherers of new fruits?/ Then you must begin today to remake/ Your mental and spiritual world,/ And join the warriors and celebrants/ Of freedom, realizers of great dreams./ You can't remake the world/ without remaking yourself," Okri wrote. The minister spent much of his speech making reference to the latter part of this extract from the poem, highlighting the need for us to "remake ourselves" if we are going to make it to the harvest. For me, the first two questions are equally critical. The key question is about your presence at a time of reaping. The inherent assumption is that there will certainly be a time of reaping, and the only question is if you will...
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