In 27 years of democracy we did not built sufficient bridges to cross poverty ravines and connect citizenry to the envisaged socioeconomic liberation. It remains a mirage.
A few years ago I attended a colloquium at the University of the Free State on Sustainable Rural Learning Ecologies: Border Crossing on how to transform rural learning environments for quality education.
Three words stuck in my head – “Ecologies; Border Crossing.” Positive ecologies breed confidence, credibility and create sustainable opportunities. Wikipedia defines ecology as “… interactions organisms have with each other and their biotic environment.”
When these are at variance, challenges arise and biodiversity gets compromised and depleted.
Governance and political ecology share the fundamentals of natural ecologies. Failure to attain the balance undercuts governance and its operations. The ongoing furore about the ruling party’s “step-aside” rule is a microcosm of the ecology in disharmony – it resonates with the general ambiance about our economy and paucity of service delivery.
We are prone to riotous protests, cantankerous political ecology. Obsessions with party positions at the expense of serving citizenry have contributed to our failure to "border-cross" personal and self-aggrandisement ravines. It undercuts governance and the spirit of freedom and democracy.
When late president Nelson Mandela gave his first inaugural State of the Nation Address (Sona) in 1994, in our euphoria we failed to take note of his simple but profound request – “Seize the time to define ourselves, what we want to make of our shared destiny.”
We veered off course to realise the end goal. We paid scant attention to those we entrusted with transition to diligently execute the “border crossing” mission to "A Better Life for All".
Can they align national purposes with requisite skills and capacity? Do they have leadership and change management strategies? Do they have an excellent work ethos to carry the tasks? But most significantly, have we curated the ecologies within which transition/transformation must happen? We fell into an assumptive trap with dire consequences.
Nature often mimics humanity for lessons we hardly pay attention to.
A colony of ants in the Amazon Forest executed an audacious “border crossing” of the Amazon River for the colony’s survival in response to ecological changes and degradation. They had to think about the future and hatched a solid plan to cross, carrying the queen and her eggs.
It was a daring expedition, but well executed. There was clarity of purpose, requisite skills set, innovative change management strategies, organisational efficacy and excellent work culture and ethos.
SA is in the same situation as were the ants; the economy has degraded, resulting in huge business losses and few employment opportunities
We have not "border crossed" leadership ineptitude as demonstrated by financial malfeasance and debauchery across government and the private sector. The service delivery ravines are growing larger with no prospects for erecting connecting bridges.
Political ecology, too, has not made strides in terms of manifestos. The majority still pontificate marshmallow rhetoric with trickle social beneficiation.
We are tolerant of under-performance by state-owned enterprises and other arms of government. When are we going to make daring “border crossings” in energy, land, human settlements, transportation, education, law and enforcement agencies, dysfunctional municipalities etc?
The incremental approaches have not worked for citizenry or spurred an economic boom.
The same applies to how we deal with corruption, crime and violence against women and children. The notion of “border crossing”, embedded in Mandela’s Sona, implores us all to reflect on our personal and collective contributions to transform and embolden clarity of national purpose, responsiveness to change and new ecologies that promote, develop and sustain the dreams and aspirations of our nation.
• Monyooe is a Sowetan reader
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.