“Lesego, all the food in the house has gone off. The meat in the freezer, eggs, butter, bread, dough – everything. It’s all rotten now…"
On Sunday morning, I woke up to this message from my sister who is house-sitting for me in Johannesburg while I’m in Europe. She was frantic and embarrassed. Frantic because there was nothing left to eat in the house and embarrassed because being part of the statistic of unemployed youth, she did not have the means to do anything about the situation.
When I left the house in December, I had stocked up on food for her and left some money for replenishing things like fruit and vegetables. But over the past two weeks, and last week in particular, loadshedding has been so severe that everything rotted.
The implication of the situation was that I had to fork out about R4,000 that was not budgeted for, to enable her to purchase groceries. But this time around, we would be wiser – no more bulk buying of meat or anything else.
What this also meant is that she would have to take an Uber to the shopping centre every second day to buy milk, bread, meat and other things. We might manage it for this month and maybe the next, but with time, the cost is going to be crippling. And I have no doubt that it’s not sustainable for millions of South Africans who are battling the same nightmare – one that is compounded by the debilitating cost of food and petrol.
I was in Vienna, Austria, when the message came in. Just after reading it, I took a walk and was greeted by the sight of two electric vehicles charging at a charging station right outside my hotel room. Several charging stations lined the street and as I walked past them, I was overcome with a sense of sadness and despair. And a tinge of rage.
You see, while in Johannesburg, the nerve-centre of the African economy, my sister was having to throw out rotten food as a result of loadshedding; in Vienna, people’s cars were charging on the streets. South Africa is an emerging economy while Austria is a highly developed country.
This is the result of historical factors, namely colonialism and imperialism from which Europe in particular benefitted. The economy of Europe and the West in general was built on the backs of black labour. It was the sweat of our forefathers that developed continental Europe as we know it – and the actions of countries like Austria that created the conditions of Africa as we know it. But it’s also the result of something else – the commissions and omissions of African leaders and of ourselves, African citizens.
I have travelled Europe extensively. I have studied on joint programmes with Europeans. I have presented papers in conferences where European scholars have also participated. I can state, without fear of contradiction, that there’s nothing superior about the intellect of Europeans.
In fact, in many instances, I have been left patently underwhelmed by them. And this is why my sister’s message, which was expressing to me the abyss into which SA is plunging, an abyss into which many other African countries have also plunged, left me feeling sad and angered.
The fact that our continent is falling apart has nothing to do with our collective intellectual abilities or our capacity for innovation. And yet, here we are, existing in literal darkness.
We have allowed our government to facilitate our country’s descent. We have watched as state-owned enterprises fail dismally.
The buck has to stop at Eskom.
On this one, we must stand united because if we don’t, we will perish together.
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