Farewell and good riddance to 2016, a year of woes

This week many South Africans will be packing up for the holidays.

Many of us will be looking at the tail-end of this year with trepidation. We will be hoping that President Jacob Zuma will not do or say something that will knock the rand or affect the economy negatively.

Many of us will be glad to see the back of this year. It’s been tough and we are tired.

We are so tired and we are so desperate for a new beginning, a fresh and positive vibe for our country.

We want to be proud again.

We are tired. We are tired of a government that tells us that a 20% pass in mathematics is good enough.

We are tired of knowing that we can jump up and down and wail and protest yet nothing will come of it.

We are so tired.

We want it to come to an end with the year 2016.

We are tired of 0.2% economic growth and no consequences.

We are tired of unemployment shooting up to 27.1% and no one batting an eyelid.

We are tired of a government that buys politicians fancy new cars while government debt ratchets up to unsustainable levels.

We are tired of every new day being worse than yesterday, of the prospect of tomorrow being worse than today.

We are tired of criticising Zuma and his toxic administration.

As the year 2016 comes to an end, one feels exhausted by the lies and the obfuscation and the bloody-mindedness of this administration.

It doesn’t just poison Zuma and his people.

It has made those of us who follow, write and talk about it feel poisoned too. It has made us negative, suspicious, unhappy people.

Oh, I am so tired. I am so tired of this dastardly situation where an ignoramus such as Hlaudi Motsoeneng can rise to the very top while some of the best people I have had the pleasure to know at the SABC are trampled on and spat on and insulted.

I am tired of SABC board chairman Mbulaeni Maguvhe and Communications Minister Faith Muthambi and the rot that they have encouraged at the public broadcaster.

I am tired of political tools like Berning Ntlemeza, Shaun Abrahams, Tom Moyane and others who desecrate our institutions.

I am tired of their smugness and their belief that they can get away with absolute murder.

I am tired of them thinking that nothing will ever happen to them, that there will not be a day of reckoning.

I am tired of the culture of impunity.

I am tired of people stealing and dissembling and standing up in front of us the next day as though we don’t know that they are thieves.

I am tired of the Gupta family and I am so very tired of this disgrace of a president.

I am tired of the ANC, an organisation which sits transfixed as its good name and traditions are trampled upon, stolen and soiled.

I am tired of Gwede Mantashe and Cyril Ramaphosa and Zweli Mkhize and their silence and complicity.

I am tired of those South Africans who still think that defending Zuma is any kind of defence of the black cause.

I am tired of Jimmy Manyi and his race baiting and his meanness of spirit and his myopia and his intellectual dishonesty. I am tired of their lack of respect for black people.

I am looking forward to 2017. I am looking forward to South Africans raising their voices in solidarity with the poor and marginalised.

I am looking forward to more South Africans speaking truth to power.

I am praying to see more of us stand with the poor people who live on the banks of the Jukskei river and are killed every time there is a flash flood because our authorities do not have the spine to ensure that they do not live there in the first place.

I am looking forward to civil society becoming more vigorous.

I am looking forward to better management of our economy in a post-Zuma dispensation.

I am looking forward to sensible voices in the ANC speaking loudly and clearly as Blade Nzimande did this past weekend.

I am especially looking forward to the opposition parties standing more and more in defence of our Constitution and against the rot of the Zuma administration.

I am looking forward to the judiciary continuing with the sterling work it does. I am looking forward to principled leadership of the nature of Thuli Madonsela and Mcebisi Jonas and Pali Lehohla and Pravin Gordhan and Aaron Motsoaledi.

I am looking forward to 2017 and a South Africa of hope, prosperity, unity, ambition and progressive ideas anchored on our much-maligned but fantastic Constitution.

I am looking forward to the turning of the tide.

I am looking forward to saying goodbye to Jacob Zuma from our public life. I am looking forward to ending 2017 on a high.

I pray for a good year for all of us.

I know we can do it. We are better than the cesspit we currently find ourselves in.