RUDI KIMMIE
The Springboks brought the Web Ellis Rugby World Cup trophy home. A day later, load shedding resumed. This is the South African reality.
That’s why we vascillate between hopeful optimism and peak pessimism.
South Africa is in a crisis. Our post-apartheid history is littered with failures. The bankrupt state-owned enterprises, many dysfunctional municipalities, load shedding, high unemployment and pervasive crime, are some of the outcomes from a government that squandered the Madiba magic, the “democracy dividends”, and plunged the country into its deepest crisis since 1994.
Many experience daily hardship, in particular our youth who face an uncertain and diminishing future with fewer employment prospects, a moribund economy and high levels of crime. The medium-term Budget speech by Finance Minister Enoch Gondongwana on November 1 painted a grim picture of South Africa’s perilous finances and proposed significant spending cutbacks.
Hence the peak pessimism results from the significant political, economic and social decline under the ANC-led government that over 29 years, reduced the economic powerhouse of Africa to a failing state. The hopeful optimism was the joyful respite when the rampant Springboks lifted the Webb Ellis trophy to become the rugby champions of the world for the fourth time when they beat arch-rivals All Blacks in France.
What can we learn from the Springboks’ winning ways that we need to plug into our national psyche to build our nation? The rallying call of “stronger together” shows what can be achieved when there’s collective will and effort from a team towards a shared goal.
If we, as civil society, politicians and corporates, can follow the same example and rise above our narrow self-interests and ideological differences and choose the common good, we too can become a winning nation.
However, in the same way the Springboks supported their will to win with team-building and game strategies, we need to tackle South Africa’s myriad social, political and economic challenges. Much of what we experience stems from the choices we make.
Hence. important questions to ask are: Are we exercising conscious choice-making, or are we operating from our blind spots? Are we willing to work as a national team to fix our immense challenges?
Consider the state of the world. Humanity is marching to its doom, with its eyes wide shut. Rampant industrialisation is destroying the natural environment, the expanding conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine are threatening the livelihoods of millions, and digital devices are accelerating social fragmentation.
Narrow-minded thinking and lack of awareness are driving the choices of “leaders”, local and international, and is placing the sustainability of the planet and all its inhabitants in grave danger.
However, we have a choice whether to be pessimistic or optimistic. What we feel is not necessarily based on fact, but on subjective interpretations and responses to situational events. Also, whichever feeling we choose will have an important bearing on our lives because they shape our perceptions, our behaviour and, ultimately, our outcomes.
Despite the immense problems we face, we have to choose hopeful optimism. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu once wrote: “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Hope is generative, inspires positive action and invites collaboration.
Humans naturally gravitate towards hope. Ask any young person studying or starting out on a career, an investor looking for opportunities, or a citizen just wanting to live a life in peace. We are drawn towards what gives us a better life and what makes us feel good.
Choosing to be hopeful is about more than just a state of mind. It’s an active process, conscious and strategic. It requires us to view challenges from multiple perspectives. More importantly, it requires us to be positive, which seeks solutions, is inspiring and creates optimism.
Psychiatrist and holocaust survivor, Dr Viktor Frankl, explained this in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning (1956). Faced with his darkest moments in life during World War II in a Nazi concentration camp where he lost his father, mother, brother and wife, Frankl wrote about how he and fellow captives retained their sanity.
They did this through intentionally practising “the last of human freedoms, the freedom to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances”. They chose hope and focused on a future that would validate their human worth despite the degrading circumstances they faced.
From the vantage point of South Africans, how do we navigate between hope and despair? At the outset, we must acknowledge our personal agency, our own abilities and actions that often create our successes or failures. Even though we don’t acknowledge it, every moment of our lives involves a choice. What we do; who we engage with; how we start our day; spend our money; and views on the world involve choice.
In fact, our lives are an embodiment of successive choices we’ve made. When we accept this truth, we realise that we are the most important players in shaping our personal and possibly professional futures.
Consciously choosing one’s destiny is a powerful testimony to being accountable for one’s actions and outcomes. This was acknowledged by Business Day columnist Peter Bruce in his article on the passing of Julian Ogilvie-Thompson, former chair of Anglo American Corporation. That Ogilvie-Thompson died in Johannesburg whereas he had the means to live in comfort anywhere in the world, prompted Bruce to write: “To all those who could go but stayed: respect.” (August 17, 2023, Business Day)
Like the Springboks who practise a daily fitness regimen, build a game-plan and adopt a winning mindset, so must South Africans invest in their “games of life”. Choosing to win involves choosing to do.
Rudi Kimmie (PhD) is a UKZN Alumnus. He’s a personal and organisational development consultant and writes in his own capacity.
Daily News