I was reading some of the comments made by Mamphela Ramphele at a press club luncheon this week. Ramphele has held the posts of managing director of the World Bank and vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town. I think in most respects she really hit the nail on the head.

She said that South Africa had “grossly underestimated” the challenges of transformation, in particular by believing in “miracles and Madiba magic”. I really believe that this is true. During the ‘Madiba reign’ we all had high hopes and believed that the future leadership would be like Mandela. We were very short-sighted!

Ramphele went on to say that the government thought only about ‘the people shall govern’ - that democracy simply meant rule by majority. They forgot that this can be tyranny. These days we can see this very clearly. The government has many times pushed through legislation which disregards the will of the people, they have pushed legislation which benefits certain segments of the population and they have an arrogance that they can do as they like because they are the biggest party.

Ramphele went on:”State corruption in combination with the government’s failure to provide quality access to public resources and social services undermined the country’s ability to be competitive as a democracy in the 21st century”. Again this is something that we have seen growing alarmingly over the last decade. Bribery and corruption have become an integral part of life now and our country has very little social services to speak of.
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Well today we have been told that our situation in this country is about to get worse - much worse. I guess this is nothing unexpected but I thought they wouldn’t be so “in your face” about it, particularly when people are rioting over many of these issues!

From next month we are told to expect another 40 cents rise in petrol and diesel. This is going to make food costs spiral as well. There is also going to be another interest rate hike which is going to affect everything again.

There is talk of the government increasing tax for middle income earners again and possibly a new increase in property taxes. As usual it is the middle class that is going to be hard hit.

Eskom has come out saying that we should expect wide spread load shedding during this winter and they warn that many of these could be unexpected as they won’t be able to keep up with demand.

We are heading for bad days in South Africa. We are going to have more people starving to death, dying of cold because they don’t have electricity and people being evicted from their homes.

But there is going to be another possible effect: the township populace are not going to react well with all this bad news. If we think that what is happening with the foreigners is bad, what is in store is going to be much worse! It wouldn’t surprise me if we are heading for a civil war…

I interviewed a resident of Zandspruit in regards to the recent attacks on foreigners. I wanted to get an idea on what was going on there and the reasons for the xenophobic attacks. Here is what Florence Gumede (not her real name) had to say:

JS: Have you seen firsthand any of the xenophobic attacks?

FG: Yes. A group of people burned down a shack near to where I live. The shack belonged to a Mozambique citizen who has been in this country for a number of years. Luckily he was not there at the time. People are still waiting around to see if he will return.

JS: Now that the army has been deployed and their is a strong police presence, do you think that the attacks are now over?

FG: Not at all. People are tired of living the way they are. These attacks are only a beginning - they will not stop!

JS: What do people think of the politicians and ANC leaders who have visited these areas to try and bring about peace?

FG: They do not understand us. They live in a different world where they are rich and get what they want. They can never understand our feelings and problems. For them they just don’t exist.

JS: Surely peace is a good way to go. Couldn’t we listen to the politicians and maybe they will listen to us?

FG: (laughs) Look at what they are doing! The foreigners go to the police station and the churches. There they are given food and blankets. Here our own people go hungry. Why doesn’t the government help their own people?
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