The Preamble to the South African Constitution calls on all South Africans to Remember, Honour, Respect, Believe, Build, and advance Justice, Equity, Safety, Inclusivity, and Prosperity for all.
Why can't we get along? Why have we allowed ourselves to be shoved into deeply divided ideological camps that no longer allow the values of the Constitution to moderate our words and behaviour?
The post-populist global power struggle has led to a war between a united group of billionaires and their nationalist troops on one side who are convinced that democracy as we know it is outdated, and a mixed bag of constitutionalist, leftist ideologues and a bunch of liberals all joined on the other side, still arguing for the principles that define a republic, when profit has taken over the conversation everywhere.
Daily public hostility, driven by those with public voices, has disrupted any possibility of meaningful conversation. In an age where it's no longer about trusting political parties but more about who can be trusted with political power, we still seem to have politicians who love to jab instead of seeing the graveness of the current political milieu.
Many South Africans have moved beyond obsessions with political parties. We all want to live in a country that knows how to appropriately remember the past, honour all those who helped to build it, free it, and build it again, where respecting each other is fundamental, where justice and equity do not scare us, and where safety, inclusivity, and prosperity for all are very normal. The Preamble to the Constitution calls on us to do that.
Most social media platforms are cesspools of hate speech. People are triggered to drop their favourite insults about individuals, races, cultures, and religions. Those comments later become a barometer of the state of the nation. Why are black people described in the most insulting ways? Why are white people constantly demonised? Why are agitators from all ideological positions allowed to spew out their irresponsible garbage that destroys the very fabric of what most South Africans are trying to build? The social media platforms pay these social media agitators handsomely if they post controversial negative garbage that attracts lots of engagement. Advertisers gravitate to their posts. It's about money and power. Nation-building is no longer a profitable thought.
The post-populist power struggle has been won by the agitators. Their rise is now the dominant issue. The constitutionalists have no answer to this sudden, unashamed rise. Democrats in the USA have been sunk into silence. It's up to 82-year-old Bernie Sanders to hit the road to be the resistance. In South Africa, the ANC has left the stage. It has become a ghost party, terminally diseased, and unable to provide any coherent leadership. It all sets South Africa up for an oligarchy takeover in 2029. Don't for a moment think that the USA has no interest in South Africa. The current US strategy is to drive the country into a desperate corner before 2029 and then have several saviour types emerge with a Project 2029 document for South Africa's salvation, which desperate voters will grab with both hands, as did the US electorate.
I hope that sometime in the very near future, a group of sensible people, Black, White, Coloured, Indian, Afrikaner, and English, who greatly disagree with each other, will meet. We are a country with a great, even uncanny, ability to understand each other. We are not who the social media agitators say we are. We all want what the Constitution offers: Remembrance, Honour, Respect, Believe, Build, Justice, Equity, Safety, Inclusivity, and Prosperity for all.
Our problem is that political stupidity and inertia have allowed oligarchs and their troops of social media agitators to fill the post-populist power vacuum. They have become the oxygen of most media platforms. The words and deeds of ordinary great South Africans doing amazing things with nation-building have no currency anymore.
Cape Argus