Two South Africans stand head and shoulders above others, leading by example. They prefer to remind their peers that they are not better than them. But, they remain prominent in daily news. Their actions facilitate positive changes and affirmations amongst others who are still struggling to find their place in a rainbow nation.
Today, South Africa does not have enough of such leaders. Today’s most prominent politicians blame each other and the country’s past instead of getting on with the job of rebuilding after over three hundred years of devastating discriminatory rule. Today, South Africa’s problems of inequality are no longer unique from the rest of the world. Nor is the debilitating occurrences of party patronage and corruption which has caused a lack of skills in important sectors. Leading from the front in this saga of theft is the country’s president, Jacob Zuma who appears to have misunderstood former US President, Harry Truman’s lamentation of “the buck stops here.”
According to Zuma, you have a golden chance in life if you invest your time, energy, resources and money in his African National Congress. Let us not forget, though, that such resources are vital for rebuilding the country after years of discriminatory rule. Zuma’s main critics like to champion their causes of righteousness and fair devolution of economic and job opportunities and administrative power, but they only fair marginally better.
But, leading from the front, Advocate Thuli Madonsela and Doctor Imtiaz Sooliman show us how it should be done. Not even the ANC’s opponents, official or not, are spared the wrath of Madonsela’s meticulous and impartial investigations into corruption and maladministration in all nine provinces of South Africa. If it were not for her work, most South Africans would remain in the dark. Speaking of which, will 2015 be the year in which Madonsela unravels the mess of Eskom which could very well cripple the country’s economy?
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Internationally, Thuli Madonsela is famous for exposing the Nkandla scandal and a long trail of misdeeds which all lead to one man, fondly referred to as Number One.
When her mandated term of office as Public Protector finally ends where else will Madonsela serve the country? As the ANC alliance begins to crumble and the DA still struggles to gain support, this can be a vexing question. And while Zuma remains the main focus for the foreseeable future, thanks to Madonsela’s work, the Economic Freedom Fighters commander in chief’s credibility as a future national leader also remains tainted. As a result of the work of the Public Protector and not the rabble-rousing of the EFF in Parliament, Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation speech in a few weeks time could very well tip the scales in favour of democratic progress and economic opportunities for all instead of chaos and disaster which is the sum total of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, revered and admired by both Malema and Zuma.
Every dog has its day. That much remains certain.
The Gift of the Giver’s charismatic and devout founding leader, Doctor Imtiaz Sooliman could very well fill a number of important ministerial porfolio’s. His tireless work both locally and globally makes incumbent ministers look pathetically incompetent. Not even US President Barack Obama and his cabinet are spared. The world’s poorest nation, Haiti, was utterly devasted when a strong earthquake battered them. Thousands of lives were lost. While Obama’s USA did little to help rebuild this tiny nation, the Gift of the Givers were amongst the first of many charitiable organisations to rush to help the Haitians with food, clothing and medicine.
And while Syria’s despot, Bashar al-Asad, maintains an iron grip on this destroyed Middle Eastern country, the Gift of the Givers remain in the line of fire, offering food, clothing and medicine as and when they are able to do so. Benyamin Netanyahu’s Zionist government remains a stumbling block though, and I am quite certain that if he allowed his Israeli Defence Force to loosen their iron grip on the high walls and fences which surround Palestinian territories, Dr Sooliman would be able to do so much more.
The Gift of the Givers are by now dispensing much needed aid amongst the hundreds, if not thousands of victims of the floods that have devastated Malawi and Mocambique. In Yemen last year, it was Dr Sooliman, and not the South African Department of Foreign Affairs, who was pleading for the life of another charitable giver of life and support, Pierre Korkie. This mission failed after the USA’s Special Forces attacked Korkie’s demented captors. Sanity was not given a chance to prevail. All the South African government did was utter excuses and do nothing.
The world, and not just Southern Africa, needs people such as Dr Sooliman and Advocate Madonsela. Thankfully, the world has such people. It has a chance.
Mark Whelan 