By David Dalling
Yes, we are alarmed by the level of crime being reported daily. Yes, few South Africans have any doubts about the poor quality of the public health services being made available to our people.
And, yes, the Department of Home Affairs is in a chronic mess and the minister incompetence personified should really resign to make way for a more efficient leader.
But there is also much good news, far less prominently reported that is affecting and will continue to affect the lives of all South Africans positively.
For instance, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel signed an agreement last month that will see SA receive almost R10-billion in development aid from the EU over the next seven years.
The money will be used, inter alia, by provincial and local governments for poverty alleviation programmes and, in particular, for sorely needed human resource development.
This will bring SA two major benefits: fewer people living in poverty, and more people being involved in programmes related to skills training.
Moving briefly to statistics, there is no doubt that the social allowances paid every month have helped push poverty backwards.
Research indicates decisively that about three million South Africans have been lifted out of poverty since 2000, largely due to social grants.
The number of people living in poverty has declined from 57 percent in 1970, to 47 percent in 2000 and now to 41 percent. And the process continues. Surely this is real and steady progress.
Just a few more truly significant figures which have relevance: In 1996 2,4-million people received a total of R10-billion in social grants. In 2007, 11,2-million people received R80-billion in social grants.
On the education front, in 1996 SA had 542 398 university graduates while the figure in 2007 is 1 460 000. In 1996, only 51 percent of houses had electricity. Today, the figure is 80 percent. In all areas housing, clean water availability, numbers of children at school things are steadily improving.
And with education, electricity, water and, believe it or not, the revolution of the cellphone today used by 73 percent of all South Africans the birthrate is dropping and has reached the almost desirable norm of 2,5 percent per annum.
To move on to something completely different, a special issue of Time magazine has named 50 world heroes promoting the protection of the environment.
Some of the most famous names recorded are former US vice president Al Gore, who is a recent Nobel Prize winner, Mikhail Gorbachev, Prince Charles, Richard Branson, David Attenborough and a South African, the little known Rory Pearson who founded a company that makes hand-powered radios, lanterns, portable generators, torches ample products which do not need batteries and do not have to be plugged into a power point. So, our country and its people continue to make their mark.
But there is more. A few weeks ago after a long drawn-out litigation, the Land Claims Court ratified an agreement reached with the government concerning the return to the Richtersveld community of about 84 000ha of diamond-bearing land on the Namaqualand coast and compensation for gems extracted.
The land is now in the hands of its rightful owners and an extraordinary reparation of R190-million is being paid which will fund continued mining operations in the area for the benefit of the local inhabitants. Justice at last!
Danny Jordaan says the 2010 Fifa World Cup has already generated billions of extra revenue for SA as well as thousands of new jobs in construction, the hospitality industry and the like.
He says preparations are on track and plenty of opportunities exist to earn revenue on the sale of goods and provision of services which will be needed before, during and after the World Cup, which is expected to attract about 450 000 extra visitors.
After a bumper season for about 3 000 whales which have visited our coastline over the past four months, most of them are on their way back to the Antarctic where they will spend their summer.
However, one 9m juvenile whale found it difficult to get away. It was caught up just outside Kalk Bay harbour with two buoys and ropes from a crayfish trap wrapped around it. Did you know that an organisation called the Whale Disentanglement Network exists?
I certainly didn't. But it does. And it was called in. After three hours of frantic, not to say dangerous, close-up labour from a small boat, the whale was freed and it swam off without so much as a thank you in the general direction of the south Atlantic.
A happy headline caught my fancy a few days ago. It read, "Sunny skies, family values lure Britons". What was new to me was that the number of British citizens immigrating to SA has increased by about 50 percent since 2000.
The reasons given are many and diverse - sunny skies, lifestyle, children's education, social breakdown in the UK, overcrowding, traffic gridlock, "yob" behaviour, spiralling living costs and so on.
I do not believe that there are any ethics in emigration and immigration. Families must decide for themselves what is best for them and their children. But with all its warts, it is true that there are few countries that can match what South Africa has to offer. Opportunities abound.
I wish every new South African a good life and happiness in our country. You chose well.
Oh, and by the way, you may have noticed that I did not even mention that our rugby Springboks are the World Cup Holders.
There's no need to boast, is there!
- Dalling is former chief whip of the ANC