TSWELOPELE MAKOE
Johannesburg - As the festive season draws to an end amid much joy and happiness despite the lingering gloom of unemployment and economic hardships, we dare not overlook the importance of the present moment to do stock-taking.
We must reflect on the year that is ending pretty soon, digest our present reality and look ahead to what the future could hold in store for us. This year might not have been met with crippling challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic of the recent past, but we are still grappling with the nuisance of Eskom’s load shedding as well as the soaring rates of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.
And although these appear to be a constant theme in our national context, we need to ensure that these challenges are not dealt with by complacency. We need to ensure that we go into the New Year with agility and assertiveness.
The world is continuing to move on, and as a nation, we cannot afford to stay stagnant. My wish for the incoming year of 2023 is that our nation sees unity more profoundly than it has ever done before. Socially, we need to each undertake the work of our development in a personal capacity. Everyone is responsible for ensuring that the space around them is an acceptable, safe, and conducive environment. It is a moral obligation.
Politically, we need to do a much better job of holding our leaders - at every level - accountable for their actions and placing at the forefront the people that have elected them. Our political landscape has sadly been historically riddled with corruption. We have amazing laws but absolutely no implementation.
We cannot afford to be numb to the immeasurable pains that we grapple with as a nation, pains that should be managed from the top tiers of leadership. Unity and a collective voice of South Africans will not only be transformative but especially vital for the future of our political economy and landscape. Socio-economically, we need to better in undertaking the importance of economic freedom and class relations.
Television shows like “I blew it” show us the incredibly dismal results of lacking financial education in our country, especially at middle and low-class educational institutions. Countless citizens go into adulthood without a proper understanding of bonds, taxes, mortgages, and savings. We are facing a significant prevalence of homelessness in South Africa.
Not only are these particularly vital topics left out of our educational systems, but they are also side-lined in adulthood, where many blindly join the “rat race” of life, spending mindlessly and living hand-to-mouth. This is the despondent reality of scores of citizens. This is not only exacerbated by elevated levels of youth unemployment but also by a society that is driven by instant gratification.
Nobody dreams of a brighter future anymore. Why? Yet, the reality is that we have only one life, and in it, we must do all that we can to be phenomenal individuals, generate generational wealth, and leave our marks on the world. We live but only once, for crying out loud! Living meaningful and intentional lives is the call of the future.
We do not have to be wealthy individuals to volunteer one’s time. We do not have to be teachers to pass on a life skill. We all possess the capability and the autonomy to act with purpose and to participate in the development of a society that desperately needs that purpose. I hope that, as a nation, we not only learn from our mistakes, but we undertake our challenges with ferocity, and we learn meaningful lessons from them.
It is immensely essential that we start to and are consistent in shaping this society into what we would like to see and more so, what we will be proud to leave behind for future generations. We cannot afford to continue to blame the government and wealthy institutions for our hindrances. We cannot afford to lay complacent to injustices - both socially and politically - that are perpetrated in front of us.
Otherwise, this will lay our future to waste and put our fate in other unscrupulous hands. Already, there are a tremendous number of challenges that are faced by the citizens of South Africa, but I have said this before, and I will reiterate it once more: you have more power than you think, and it is pertinent that you use your power to help shape the future. As the founding father of democratic South Africa, Nelson Mandela once noted: “It is in your hands.”
*Tswelopele Makoe is MA (Ethics) Student at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice at UWC. She is also a gender activist.