It’s going better and better in South Africa

It’s time for a bit of a rant. I’m sick and tired of all the negativity. Especially from expats who seem to feel they need to justify their decision to emigrate by telling the world, and us, how terrible life in South Africa is. Now I’m the first to admit this country has problems to solve. Crime, poverty and 3-talk with Noeleen are just the start of it.
But these people talk as if the problems we have are not only insurmountable but some new and terrible thing unleashed upon us in the last decade or so. Have they all forgotten that the top-3 spots used to go to taxi-wars, oppression and the Felicia Mabuza Shuttle show  ?

This country is getting better. It’s getting better because we recognize the problems and keep working on it. We have had corruption problems for years, but the news about that in the last few months have been mostly about corruption being uncovered, and the perpetrators going to jail.
These days, when we see news of a horrific crime – within days we tend to see news of an arrest. Not long ago we used to complain that criminals almost never got caught, and even if they did they didn’t care because prison life was better than their life outside… now that’s not true anymore. Criminals are getting captured, they are getting tried and they are getting convicted – and if the desperate attempts by people like Donovan Moodley to appeal their sentences on technicalities are anything to go by – prison life is not all the nice anymore either.

It’s been quite a while, come to think of it, since we read about an audacious prisoner escape, not long ago that was an almost daily event. Things aren’t as good as they should be, but things are getting better every day.
I’m no fan of the DA – but the fact that they could claim an outright victory in a province, a first since the end of appartheid, shows our democracy is maturing and becoming more well democratic. There are still problems with it – especially with things like floorcrossing – but things are gradually getting better. South Africans are making things better.

As I write this, an outbreak of xenophobia not far from here has the country sitting up and taking notice. While I utterly condemn the idea of it, it’s interesting to note that when similar events happened last year – they happened country-wide and people died. It seems to have improved. I’ve heard it said that the problems we face with xenophobia is a result of the governments lack of effort to stem the tide of illegal immigrants, and it’s true that our borders are guarded by an already overworked police force rather than the military (whose job it is to keep our borders safe… else why are we spending such a fortune on having one in the first place ?). The government doesn’t want to properly close the borders however due to a sense of gratitude. Much of the cabinet were housed in those countries while in exile during appartheid.
That aside though, throughout the world and throughout history it has been the norm that borders were essentially open, where you contributed there you were welcomed, and throughout the world it has for quite some time now been expected of countries that are better off to accept and assist refugees fleeing oppression and disasters in their neighbouring countries.
South Africa cannot shirk this responsibility – though we can certainly do a better job of handling the refugees, getting them properly integrated into our society and turning them into taxpaying, contributing citizens rather than moochers – which instantly removes any sympathy towards those members of society who react with rage toward them.

Yep, we have problems – and some of them are bad… but things are so much better now than they used to be and they are improving every day. As we speak, the BRT in Cape Town is nearing completion, it’s route is such that it will most likely remove any need for me to travel with my own transport to work on all but the rarest occasions. Cheaper, greener, reliable public transport – here we see one of our biggest challenges being solved – despite attempts by an established (much worse) industry to derail (no pun intended) the project.

I was married to a girl of Asian descent. Have we forgotten that just 30 years earlier- my marriage would not have been recognized in this country because I’m a different race to her ? That we could both have faced prison sentences for sleeping with each other ? In this country, it used to be possible to go to jail for sleeping with your own husband/wife if the government didn’t approve of who you married !

In the South Africa of today, despite the conservative moral majority’s efforts – gay marriage has been legalized, and all it took was one single case in the constitutional court. The court didn’t ask “what does the public think”. It did not ask “what is the legal precedent”. It asked “are we treating some people different before the law”. The answer was yes. This is discrimination. Therefore – they forced government to change the law.
The power now exists in this country for a minority to ensure that their right to equality is effected in law. The balance is in place here to ensure the best virtues of majority rule, while tempering it’s worst shortcomings (because even if the majority hold wrong views, the minority can prevent them from legislative discrimination).

Things aren’t as good as they should be yet… but they are a damn sight better than they used to be. Think Jacob Zuma isn’t a very good president ? Have you all forgotten P.W. Botha ?!?!?!

Perhaps the real reason why so many expats have absolutely nothing good to say about South Africa, except to declare how “pretty” it was… well maybe it’s because they are ashamed that they couldn’t face up to the challenge of helping to solve them and build the country we want – at least now, we have the power to do so. Or maybe, it’s because many of them haven’t forgotten P.W. Botha, and actually long for the days when this country let them (because let’s face it, almost all of them are “white”) get wealthy on the suffering of others, when it discriminated rampantly and kept all the best jobs and all the power for them. Maybe it’s because, though they will never admit it, they are so entrenched in their sense of racial and cultural supremacy that they cannot handle living in a country where they are a minority – and cannot expect to reasonably get the majority of… well everything.

To put it bluntly – maybe they complain so much, not because South Africa is so bad, but because in South Africa – they can’t get away with racism anymore. There’s a reason so many expats choose Australia, it’s a country not all that different in it’s concervative, racist government than South Africa was a few decades ago.
The difference is just this: there you can get away with racism, because it’s essentially a monoculture.

Well, South Africa is not by any measure a monoculture and any pretense to the contrary is pretty much doomed. I like our multiculture. I like it’s facets and it’s different forms of expression and it’s varied arts. I think that is what is the real secret “worst thing” about South Africa for them, well I think it’s the best thing about living here. So maybe that’s why I think South Africa is better now than it used to be.
If all else fails… at least I can remember when walking into a wimpy-bar meant a good chance of having your legs blown off by a limpet-mine. I remember what that was like. And the people whose parents planted them, they do too – and most of them, like most of us, prefer the world today – where we can go to a pub together and have a beer together. Where nobody is planting limpet mines, because nobody feels the need to, and nobody gets blown up by them either.

I still like the new South Africa.