It’s been 3 months since my last contribution to the Blog, not for lack of inspiration as I never stopped writing. Writing is my first love so I have been writing except none of that found its way into the blog.
A lot has been happening lately around Eskom and the SOE’s and I have been itching to contribute my 2 cents to the raging discourse.
Today being the last day of 2019, I couldn’t help casting my eyes back on the year that was. As we are about to enter the year 2020, I started wondering if 2019 is the end of the decade or only in 2020. To spare you the misery a little birdie whispered in my ear we count decades from 0 to 9 so this 31st December 2019 officially marks the end of the decade and we are officially transitioning into a new decade.
So it’s official, the 21st century has shed its teenage years and in a few hours entering its early 20s, the age of young adulthood.
2019 has been a particularly difficult year for South Africa’s Political Economy. The year started with Ramaphosa fighting for his political life in the ANC, a task that has not been made any lighter by the findings against him by the public protector whom herself has not had it any easier as the highest court in the land has been no less scathing in its findings againt her.
The courts have given the President some reprieve albeit temporarily. He has been given some breathing space to consolidate things in the ANC but the bounty hunters of global capitalism could not give a tweet about fixing the ANC. It’s payback time and the Vultures of Capitalism want back all their pound of flesh and they want it now.
It is a foregone conclusion that the announcement of the unbundling of ESKOM in parliament was a forerunner to its selling off and the Vultures are already circling the carcass that is ESKOM, in their books ESKOM is already off from the government’s balance sheet.
To think the public is impatient with Cyril’s lethargic Thuma Mina walk is an understatement. The Vultures of Capital are more frustrated with his lack of killer instinct. According to them the last piece of SAA should have been wrapped up by now ready for shipping to the highest bidder. Their fingers should be deep in the transmission grid pulling it apart. It is no wonder the President and his men ( The Minister and the Chairman cum CEO) have been erratic in their handling of ESKOM in particular. I will leave ESKOM and the rubber thing here for now
Casting my eyes to the past decade does not inspire much confidence. It was a decade of decadence. The ANC as a leader of society failed to show revolutionary leadership. Not surprising, as a direct consequence, It was the decade where the Executive was awol and where Parliament abdicated its responsibilities as the law making arm of our democratic system to the courts as final arbiter on matters where the party should have taken charge through its deployees in both parliament and in government.
The last decade ushered us into the era of post truth where manufactured truth is the only truth there is despite the facts starring us in the face. This is the age where journalists have violated their codes and opted to sleep with the chosen side in the Bell Pottinger/ Stratcom devide of Media hegemony.
A decade of the lowest common denominator that gave the world a Donald Trump and a Boris Johnson as world leaders ready to march the west beyond Brexit to Wexit where the Western countries exit to be relegated to the has been of superpowers as Chinese colonization of Africa is on the rise.
Should I be pinching myself to remind myself that this was supposed to be the decade of Africa? What has been African about the last decade? I agree with Busani Ngcaweni on his assertions about the age of unthink – not knowing If he coined it – though I differ fundamentally with his views on SOEs. African leadership has not in the last decade demonstrated an appetite to think beyond the template of the debilitating neocolonialism and neoliberal hegemony. If anything this is the decade that neoliberalism has shown South Africa flames with the Credit Rating Agencies running rampant and I suspect this as the wrath for SA joining the BRICS block.
This may sound like an oxymoron; As the 21st century graduates from being a teenager into its early 20s, I take solace in #Ama2000 – yes the ones we ridicule as perennial babies – to show us Revolutionary Courage and leap us out of the decade of decadence into higher Revolutionary Consciousness.
I believe #Ama2000, the generation born after the born frees ( Generation X,Y) are the most underestimated and most misunderstood generation of our young democracy. They are the Millenials, Generation Z) who were born with a smartphone in their hands. They actually interacted with technology while in their mother’s belly.
Unlike the Born frees (Generation X,Y) the Millennials have no hang ups about struggle culture. I have seen Generation X who inherited struggle culture from us the Baby-boomers, who swell the ranks of the EFF stumbling and fumbling as they tried to reconcile the politics of National liberation and the quest for Black Conscious and Decolonision. They, however, have been overwhelmed by the excesses of Capitalist materialism of a national democratic epoch. They are hamstrung by straddling the two worlds of struggle and freedom much like their struggle hero parents ( the baby boomers)
I pin my hopes on the Millennials ( Generation Z), who unlike us the baby boomers ( who fought for national liberation) and their offspring (generation X) will not be tempted or bought for a piece of Silver as they grew up with the BMWs, Mercedes Benz, Cognac and Single Malt Whiskey in their house in the burbs.
They are not new to the shiny stuff, but yearning for meaning which the technological gadgets cannot give to them. They are the generation ripe to imbibe Biko and Fanon for a Black Conscious and a Decolonized society. They are ready to leap us from the age of decadence to the age of Revolutionary Consciousness into decoloniality. We only need to curate the content in their technological gadgets with the right messaging.
Our revolutionary contribution shall be to make sure # the fees have truly fallen and #data has fallen
Sipho’s reflexions 