We do nothing at our own peril

I don’t like sounding like an alarmist. What I like even less is announcing how much I don’t like being an alarmist because we both know that a “but” will be making an appearance soon. I won’t disappoint. But (yes, there it is) I think that if we carry on as if things are just fine and dandy in South Africa then we are up for a rude awakening. By the time we wake up it will be too late. The signs are all there but some of us refuse to see them.

I will name but a few signs:

The Scorpions were dissolved in order to protect certain individuals.
Thabo Mbeki was recalled in the interests of certain individuals, not that of a nation.
Schabir Shaik was released from prison under dubious circumstances.
Now we hear that the charges against Jacob Zuma are going to be dropped.
People’s jobs are being threatened because they have decided to join Cope. Barney Pityana the latest example.

All these events happened within a year. Can you imagine how far we will have descended into the abyss as a nation in 5 years?

All I hope is that tenders and promises of great positions in government or money don’t blind us. What is at stake here is not just our little job, big or small houses — it is a nation. An entire future. If we turn a blind eye to these events that happened in less than a year, we only have ourselves to blame. It does not take a prophet to see this.

Time is not on our side. Allow me to quote a paragraph that I like to use from Dr Martin Luther King Jr (it is not the last time I will use it either). In it, he warns against the perils of doing nothing, of being too late. I will let his words speak for themselves. I will not pollute them with my explanation any further.

“We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood — it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilisations are written the pathetic words, ‘Too late’. There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect.”

So are we going to be negligent or are we going to be vigilant? As young people we are the custodians of the future, we stand to inherit whatever mess is left behind by those who have gone before. What are we going to do?

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