Mandela promised us a Rainbow Nation colourfully and charismatically led by the Arch in his purple daze.
Mbeki next foresaw an African Renaissance which became a Dream Deferred until further notice when the historical library in Mali that SA helped refurbish was trashed by jihadists.
Zuma actually delivered a New Age, except it was a SOE funded newspaper written by his Gupta gabbas.
Cyril tossed his hat into the ring when he dared to dream of a New Dawn during his inauguration in 2018.
He doubled down on that idea in 2019 with an “I had a dream” moment. He described inspirational, sangoma-like visons of bullet trains linking smart mega-cities, some of which didn’t exist yet (and never will).
Covid put grand dreams and schemes on hold except for people like Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who had visions of a smoke and alcohol-free future which she could order by fiat. For a brief period she wielded more power than all the previous presidents. The Nationalist Party gave us Dr No (Dr AP Treurnicht) and the ANC gave us Dr Party Pooper with her mirthless, glum visage. At a stroke of her poison administrative pen, she entrenched low-life criminal gangs in our society with their bootleg smokes and alcohol to the tjoon of 10s of billions of Rands, tax free.
Covid also engendered visions of SA becoming a vaccination hub as a shot on the arm of the economy. This pipe dream took root particularly after the developed world stuck it to us, not that we’ve done much with the vaccines now that they’re freely available.
Fast forward to the 2022 SONA. Cyril foretold of an end to the SOD (State of Disaster). Unfortunately, he wasn’t talking about the resurrection of the country into a winning nation after 27 years of devastation caused by state capture, racist socialist policies and ideologies, incompetent and corrupt SOE Boards and executives, general corruption at every level and in every national, provincial and local department, overstaffing with overpaid, unmotivated and largely underqualified government employees, political and trade union violence and intransigence, political assassinations, pie-in-the-sky theoretical dreams like outcomes-based education, ….
No, he was talking about something much easier. At the stroke of an administrative pen, his war council will lift most of the remaining restrictions of our confinement. Is it going to make much difference? No, it just means that we can get mugged by people not wearing masks and sanitising beforehand. Hopefully though, it will mean an end to the hugely overpriced and largely unnecessary deep cleaning of schools and government buildings on the nearest whiff of a Covid case – a small win in the junkyard of shattered dreams.
All I have to say is – SOD them and SOD off.