Freedom Day transformation stocktaking: we could do better

The recent xenophobic attacks somewhat put a dampener what was supposed to be an eventful  South Africa’s celebration of 21 years of Freedom. Ironically, the country’s constitution, hailed as one of the “most progressive” in the world, espouses tolerance.
Perhaps the intolerance betrays the country’s failure to transform itself – to transform the mentality of people still harbouring bitterness with a system of government that made them believe they were subhuman. The chickens had come home to roost after a long time in free range!
Now, it is beginning to emerge that the country was too eager to show the world that it can avert the tragic trajectory of countriess that pursued a bloody revolution. And, in the course of that, it overlooked the introduction of programmes to change the mode of people from freedom fighting to economic emancipation.
From the onset, some things could have been done better.
Basic things were ignored as people were made to believe that they were too entitled to some provisions from government which people even in wealthy developed countries still have to work so hard to access. Social safety nets were introduced to people who seldom deserved them. Business grants were introduced without due diligence to ensure that the recipients had the wherewithal to manage financial resources. Passing marks in education institutions were reduced to enable the previously disadvantaged to pass – (30%) became a benchmark. The youth who had matriculated found themselves loafing instead of being absorbed into apprentice programmes, frustrated with no source of income.
Small wonder, the abovementioned apathy which sowed the seed of the xenophobic attacks (one would like to assume like that).
On balance, in all honesty, there has been remarkable progress in various areas; naysayers did not expect us to be holding our own – 20 years after the country’s democracy. Just to demonstrate how badly we have not done, we need to see the ruinous path that our neighbour to the north took just two decades after independence in 1980.
However,  a failed state should not be our benchmark.  As a nation, we should aim higher, if we are to be counted amongst the world’s best. Being labelled as the best in a continent in which some countries cannot even feed their people is not good enough .
All in all, as we celebrate Freedom Day, it is time for stocktaking to establish where we could have done better  and act promptly.