A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity established by an act of legislation to earn profit for the government so that they can provide products and services to citizens at a lower price, particularly to the more remote locations of the country.
Methinks that part of this ideal smacks of what is desirable, but our ANC has altered the profit-making aspect a bit more personalised. That is the burden of my song this week.
As usual, I reassure my readers that I am not an investigative journalist or reporter. I am merely a columnist who reflects on daily realities in a user-friendly way which will promote productive discourse for the solution of national, social and other problems.
Take my present confusion about a national involvement over the past three weeks. During that time of national unity around a certain very public commitment, we enjoyed the unbelievable luxury of reduced load shedding. The result of fostering the public commitment that includes an oddly shaped ball paid off so well that I got several great reads under my belt.
The minute a result in this national commitment was announced – in a sort of “mission accomplished” mode – we were rewarded with our first two hours of almost mandatory load shedding.
Now the question I ask myself is, “Who is pushing the buttons?” Who is calling the shots? And why is a close-to-limp president in a stadium in suitably expensive regalia to receive acknowledgement from a crown in another country?
Was this vote-gathering? Dream-catching? Déjà vu kind of stuff? Was Morgan la Fay hiding somewhere in the green-and-gold waterfall? The president looked like the cat that had not only swallowed the canary but had been given the golden cage from whence the poor bird was released.
No, no, no. Our priorities are warped and bitterly unco-ordinated to our real needs. Taking just cost into account, the last three weeks were expensive. The Cape Argus even reported that the psychic health of the 23 heroes was catered for by having their families in their hotels or near enough to provide the emotional stability to do what we thought they do best and should be seen to be doing.
Who footed that bill? How will accountability be achieved. Can every athlete now claim that he will run in the Diamond League Athletics fest – from which we are sadly absent – only if the country sponsors his wife’s presence while he runs a four-minute mile and does nothing else except win or lose? Or both?
No doubt there will be a ticker-tape parade to welcome the all-conquering heroes. The exercise had some merit which my ageing brain cannot fathom or find. Whatever the case, do not dare tell me we can replicate two prior and unique moments of glory: the first free and fair elections and the magic of the moment when Madiba shared holding aloft a prized trophy with the captain of the side.
One cannot replicate glory. It is earned, not contrived. We cannot stand together as a nation and celebrate a metal container and claim to be a healed people. We are suffering from chronic, almost fatal delusions. As the famous Desiderata says: “No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should”. And we all have a right to be here as children of a common universe. And God fulfils Himself in many ways as the old order changes.
But to promote self-delusion as a national ethic and then renege on recognition of a possibility for that state of grace, punctuating the folly with an instantaneous reverting to load shedding without a twinge of conscience is not acceptable, viable or even to be countenanced.
Wake up from your dream of a nation busy with reunion. Forget the euphoria of success, which can quickly be replaced by disappointment. House the homeless. Do not mess with the curriculum if it is not necessary. Validate the people who work daily in a soul-destroying round-about to keep home and hearth, and nation, together in a common purpose.
* Alex Tabisher.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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