JUDITH FEBRUARY: Ramaphosa should draw a line in the sand
'Easy slogans about decolonisation, white monopoly capital, taking back the land and white tears were only going to lead to the cul-de-sac of thought we have seen thus far'
EXTRACT
No matter how many times Ramaphosa summoned our better angels and encouraged us to say "Thuma mina!", we all knew it would be a tough ask to rebuild our economy and a social compact that is fraying at the seams.
After 100 days of the Ramaphosa presidency, the media and others were starting to feel the urgency to somehow measure it.
Expecting too much to be solved in 100 days was naive, but it made for good headlines. It also spoke to the public discourse and the immediacy of reaction required.
This is by no means unique to South Africa. Any scan of Twitter and other social media from around the world is proof of this. News has barely broken and swift reaction is required as a matter of course.
Driving along the N2, past Cape Town International Airport and through the winelands, one is struck by many things. In every possible way it challenges our ways of seeing in this complex country. The ramshackle houses that hug the highway are apartheid's legacy and post-apartheid's shame. One can be pretty sure that the residents of these informal structures, with limited access to clean and safe sanitation, have given up trying to find the politicians responsible. Perhaps they have been involved in the protests that are now part of daily life, but really they are simply trying to eke out a living in desperate winter conditions. One is also struck by the number of adult men wandering along the highway with nothing to do. They are generally young and searching for work. Statistics tell us that a job is unlikely to be found.Still further along the N2, away from the harsh reality that is Cape Town's informal settlements, one is inevitably confronted with the breathtaking beauty of the ...
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