I warned you and now the water is starting to boil

(Image: Lobster - London Bridge, London, England - Friday 7th September 2007 by law_keven licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 license) I am reading Pierre De Vos’ post about Mo Shaik’s recent appointment as head of the South African Secret Service with a combination of amusement and dread. As I read this I think back to a post I published a year and a half ago where I warned that we are like lobsters in slowly heating water here in South Africa. At the time the hot topics were xenophobia and HIV/AIDS policy and I wrote the following:

A big challenge South Africa faces is being slowly brought to a boil at which point things fall apart. We have idiot ministers who can’t accept that we have an HIV/AIDS pandemic in this country that needs serious attention, not gardening tips alone. Our infrastructure is under severe pressure because of short-sighted and wholly inadequate planning. Service delivery is lousy. Our government seems incapable of tackling tyrants and instead offers its support of these vile regimes and now we are forced to watch as these mobs roam the streets with weapons, attacking and even killing anyone who might be a foreigner.

Xenophobia and HIV/AIDS aren’t in the headlines these days but two personalities are: Mo Shaik and Julius Malema. We joke about Malema’s education and the nonsense that comes out of his mouth but he didn’t become ANCYL president by chance. He has charisma and he appeals to a great number of current and future voters. I don’t think I am being too alarmist when I point out that Hitler was also a very charismatic leader. Malema likely won’t lead us into a world war but he can disrupt our society at a fundamental level. Mo Shaik’s appointment is a blatant illustration of how the Zuma government is rewarding cronyism and party loyalty over suitability for the positions those appointees are appointed to. That isn’t to say all appointments are corrupt but an alarming number of high profile and influential positions are. As Justice Malala pointed out:

South Africa has a cultural problem: we have lost our sense of right and wrong, our sense of the proper and the improper. We have lost our sense of shame. We are sitting with leaders who cannot see the shame in what they do and insist on going on in their offices as if nothing has happened. Leaders are found guilty of the most offensive crimes but, instead of stepping down, they stand brazenly before us and vow to fight the system. They have no shame.

Just consider Judges Hlope and Motata, Jackie Selebi and Leonard Chuene. Each of these people have or currently occupy positions of trust and influence and they are at the centre of severe corruption and criminal allegations which appear to be true. What do they do? They lie, obfuscate the truth and dodge their responsibility for their misdeeds. Not only do our leaders have little shame and sense of right and wrong but there is a growing culture of tolerance for corruption. It doesn’t even matter if you get caught. As long as you are aligned with the right political figures you will not have to account for your corrupt deeds. And you know what? This is becoming more prevalent and while we protest each time some new character pops up, we are losing sight of how long this has been going on for and what the cumulative effect is. Put simply, the water is starting to boil and pretty soon we will be thoroughly cooked. Just saying.