A snippet of the mood in this country

One of the ANC politicians, Matthews Phosa, came to speak at the company today.   I didn’t actually go to the talk; it was televised live internally to the rest of the company, as the auditorium was packed. 

Even though it was interesting to hear his point of view, the question and answer session that followed raised a few things in my mind about how things have changed in the last few months in South Africa.

I was wondering why he was doing the session when we got the invitations, but after watching the broadcast today, I’m sure it’s because the leadership in the company is hearing talk amongst the staff and it’s worrying them.  The session was mostly positive, about how much has changed for the good, and what the govt is doing to make things better.  But in the end, the man is a politician, and a good one at that.  He successfully avoided answering a lot of the questions, but managed to still put his point across. 

What struck me as new in this country is the openness to talk about how unhappy we all are with the situation.  There were a lot of questions today from people (of all colour before someone asks me) asking what the government is doing about crime and Eskom mostly and there were a lot of questions about the divide in the ANC and about Zuma.  People stood up and talked about recent, I mean very recent, crimes that have affected them and their close friends. One lady asked how much longer we must be patient and wait for the crime and other things to be resolved… because she is ready to leave and can leave the country quickly.

A few months ago, it would have been unheard of to talk about leaving the country so openly.  Especially speaking in front of all your colleagues.  It’s such a career limiting move!  Yet today, there were plenty of people saying the same thing… to this politician… to the leadership of our company too.  It’s worrying.

I think that everyone has just reached the end of their tether.  We can’t take anymore.  This power/Eskom problem is the last straw I think.  It’s going to cause huge economic problems if it can’t be resolved quickly.  And all Phosa said today was that it’s not in the hands of the government, the solution is in the hands of Eskom and the people.  Surely the govt needs to help Eskom!  Surely they need to help with funding! 

One woman likened the crime situation to the one that happened in New York that Mayor Rudy Giuliani helped clean up, and asked why SA can’t do the same thing. His response… the people of New York helped.  They didn’t run away from it, like everyone here is doing.  (I thought you might like that comment Shuia )

On another tangent, one thing I did find interesting too…  he was asked about education in the country and what is being done to equalise the education as the Private schools and Model C schools are generally ok, but the rest needs serious intervention.  He replied saying that in some areas, the schools are in a worse situation that pre-1994!  And then after talking about the influx of people from other African states… that some schools he’s visited are  filled with 80% mozambiquans! wow! I didn’t realise that!

Anyway, I don’t think the talk made anyone more positive about what is going on here, but it sure was interesting.