It was a bad day at the newspaper office yesterday. I read some rather idiotic articles and feel the need to rant about them. The headline of Max Du Preez's article “Transformation should benefit all, not a few” piqued my interest. I agree with that comment 100%; my version of”all" and the government's and Max's of course do differ quite substantially. To me all means everyone, not just a select sector of the population. To others it means the previously disadvantaged. Max suggests in his article how he would make whites pay for the past; not only in taxes but make them work to correct the wrongs of the past.
His article got my blood boiling as it is this narrow minded thinking that is holding the country back. See generally people do not respond to the stick, they tend to dig their heels in. The current debt crisis shows us that.
Max goes on to suggest that we should train the unskilled people to do our jobs. So many people have left SA already due to crime; can you imagine the exodus after losing our jobs to the very people we gave time and energy to train. Nobody in their right mind would even consider that!
Max ends his article by saying it would not be in the interests of the country to get rid of skilled white people. Unfortunately this is one of few valid points in Max's slightly inflammatory article.
Transformation is for all citizens of South Africa. In 1994 the ANC's slogan was a better life for ALL. Why then have we shifted from the previously disadvantaged to the currently disadvantaged? Our cabinet ministers with all their degrees behind them cannot figure a way to create a win-win for all. How sad.
There are solutions but being one of the currently disadvantaged it is not my place to give those solutions and given that I have more chance of falling pregnant than becoming President of South Africa, I guess I will just keep quiet.
