Breaking Down the Walls Between a Government and its Citizens

Looking at the increasing levels of instability in this country, which has gone on for a number of years now, I feel that our leaders should have done more. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to govern this country, considering all of the challenges, and all of the scars from our past which influence our present. Plenty of credit is due to the ANC and our post-Apartheid presidents who have brought about some fantastic successes for South Africa. However, there are some major failures which could have been avoided, surely. Perhaps the biggest failure is the failure of communication between government and its citizens: with our citizens not communicating their concerns constructively to government and our government not communicating their past successes and current plans to our citizens. There needs to be a shift in mind-set which does not set government apart from its citizens.

Of course, this blog included, there have been plenty of discussions and comments made about the “new generation of South African leaders” who will guide this country forward in the future, who will have a new mindset. I know there are many incredible young people who are a cause for optimism, however we have a crisis which is happening right now which our more senior leaders need to address. Again, I worry that this country is being kept afloat by powerful doses of positivity, optimism, and the promise of a better tomorrow. However, who is actually ensuring that this better tomorrow arrives? Significantly, will this better tomorrow be achieved by government and citizenship partnering one another or is it expected to be simply delivered?

The idealism which we have relied upon to guide this country through the circumstances of the 1990s needs to be replaced by more practical realism. A realism which understands that government and citizenship should not be running at parallels but rather intersecting their interests and communication at all times. It isn’t time yet for the “next generation” of leaders to take centre stage. Not yet. Rather, it is time for the current generation of leaders to alter their approach to ensure that their successors do not inherit a country that is little improved from the one they were tasked with governing in 1994. We may have come a long way, but we need to go much, much further.