The value of anyone to his country is what he/she contributes to the well-being of the country, not what party he belongs to or what ideology he subscribes to.
Unfortunately, this truth is lost to SA citizens. At the core of problems of this country is a mindset programmed by persistent subjection to lies and divisions occasioned by variations in the sense of what constitutes ethics and morality.
As Steve Biko said, “... a community is easily divided when their perception of the same thing is different”. If only we all understood and appreciated the value in ethics and morality in the same way. We would then all be jealously guarding our moral fibre and placing loyalty to it far above loyalty to another, whether an individual or political organisation.
It would be easy for everyone to understand that pointing out what is wrong is not necessarily motivated by resentment towards the perpetrators but the affront on our moral integrity and to curtail such affront necessarily requires removal of the perpetrators from the position that enables them to defile our moral standing.
Had we been a society with common perception of what constitutes ethics there would never have been state capture. The media would not be running after EFF leader Julius Malema to feed us his convoluted rantings. We would never be seen dead molly coddling people with dubious demeanours, let alone give them mandate to run affairs, the mandate goes with access to and control of our money.
Even the very democracy is not understood in the same way. Whereas election/voting are processes meant to ensure participation of all citizens in the decision about who should run the affairs of the country, many view it as a sort of football league where football clubs compete every year to win the league. The obligation therefore is to root for your team to win the league.
In their minds political parties are clubs that compete every five years and it is in their hands to make sure "their" team wins by voting for it. The condition of the country or efficient management thereof is not in their mind as they vote, winning by their party is.
A country is in trouble when even the educated (the well-read not necessarily the multi-certificated) make the remark, “But who else can we vote for?”. The implication of such a statement is that not even one person among the 55 million people in SA can do better than the incumbent.
Those currently running our infrastructure to the ground, have bankrupted state-owned enterprises, have collapsed schooling in townships, have collapsed health provision, have paralysed law enforcement are the best we have and no one person among the 55 million can ever be better than the present. In other words this country of so many millions does not have anyone with integrity honesty and undying commitment to the people of this country.
• Dr Mosalakae is a Sowetan reader
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