It’s been a short while since we witnessed one of the worst cases of protesting and looting in our short democratic history of South Africa that took place in July of 2021. Our problems are only compounding with the gap between the rich and poor widening even more. We have a horrific statistic where our gap, based on the Gini coefficient, is the HIGHEST in the world.
We love to blame in South Africa. It has been nearly 30 years since we held our first democratic elections and all we have done is either blame apartheid or the incompetence of the new government. As a result, there’s no accountability and thus no one feels responsible for fixing the issues because it’s simply someone else’s fault.
We do an honest banter about the current problems and look at ways for all of us to collectively acknowledge that we indeed have a problem, willing to help and rebuild South Africa with accountability. This will require compromise from the have’s to help the have-nots. We need a system that fosters creativity and curiosity at all levels and most of all… Dream without permission or approval. The dreamers (the geeks, the engineers, the scientists, educators, and even the storytellers) are the ones who will put us back on the map. We just need to find them, nurture them, believe in them and the rest will fall into place.
TCL - Episode 16 - Let's get real about South Africa.