The Shadow of a Real State

Copyright © 2022 Maphuthi Phahledi

First edition 2022

Published by Maphuthi Phahledi at Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Maphuthi Phahledi

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Prelude

A peaceful South African society went for the first democratic polls in 1994, filled with hope of a huge relief from the ills imposed by the apartheid regime. Huge amount of expectations were raised when the outcomes of the polls gave a new mandate to lead the country to the African National Congress. The society hoped for the new administration to fulfil its aspirations of the final elimination of social disparities and the restoration of due dignity to previously disadvantaged masses who were not classified as Whites.

Little did ordinary people know that the new administration will develop into a nonchalant entity which would turn the country into an arena of corrupt allegations against a collective of political leaders especially after the end of the Government of National Unity.

Well over twenty five years in power, the ANC is yet to be seen as a uniting force in building a society that can be in a position to forget about prior oppressive system which maintained disparities in all spheres of lives.

It is yet to turn a democratic dispensation into practical freedom giving platform to members of the society on equal basis in all important sectors such as education, health, business, decent accommodation, land acquisition, service delivery and creation of employment in a bid to attain redress of the imbalances of the past.

On the contrary, a new path of the societal agony appears to be on the card. A dirty war against corruption!

Go through to witness!

Chapter One

The Shadow of a Real State

1.1. Truth Be Told

A shadow state starts with corruption while an oppressive state starts with segregation. In the same breath, a betrayal is senseless and causes hatred.

It is evidently clear that South Africa is in turmoil. Her education, her economy, her political leadership and her social status leave much to be desired. The country’s focus is now on laws, courts and commissions which produce less tangible results to solve evident impediments to real progress. Violence is sky-rocketing in the country especially in squalid settlements. More and more talks and conversations are held regarding gender based and femicide violence. Police Service department is often blamed for not executing its duties effectively and professionally, hence occasional calls for army assistance in some areas such as Cape Town.

The legal system is also denigrated in many quarters as a dog without teeth.

For some time now, there have been talks and more talks about corruption in the country and commissions were established and many names of people allegedly being involved in corrupt activities are often mentioned but, the nation has not seen prosecutions being meted out to any sizable number of them. As such, from the point of view of the nation, the state is failing.

The amount of speculation about the issues of corruption and its potential absolve to those implicated remains too high. As a result, the nation remains disgruntled about non-convictions of the aforesaid which leaves a lot of presumptions floating in the sky. The national trust in the state’s ability to run the country’s affairs and the effectiveness of the legal system to execute its due duties remain a talk behind closed doors as the nation still waits for the disclosure of the real facts about corruption and state capture.

The Zondo Commission of Inquiry about the state capture has made huge strides to gather information and disclosed it to the relevant state apparatus but no avail of the effective action match to the commission’s endeavor. This in itself raises more expectations and undue speculations about the whole corruption saga. The nation is forced to read this unfinished book for a foreseeable future. No amount of satisfaction shall ever be attained until and unless the issues of corruption and state capture are brought to the end through the ultimate convictions.

Gender-based violence and femicide are talked about to the extent of translating those talks into demonstrations. A shift of gender- based violence from ordinary public space to the institutional domains has become a new trend and a worrying factor too.

South Africa’s youths are bound to be educated. Broader education shall never be attained in the home but at educational institutions. If criminality infringes into the educational institutions, it becomes more than just a national disaster but a national demise. This is where the capable, caring state and effective legal system have to play an undisputable role for the benefit of the whole nation.

The main responsibility lies squarely in the hands of the government through the National Prosecuting Authority to ensure that all affected individuals in all manner of criminal activities are dealt with decisively, efficiently and effectively if there has to be a restoration of trust in government machineries.

1.2. The Economy

The state of the economy is alarming. Unemployment is said to be at about twenty nine percent (29%) and likely to rise in spite of promises being made for job creation. Job losses and retrenchments are ever looming and will soon become a reality. Digitization and mechanization are likely to soon take root only for huge exacerbation of unemployment unless the government counters that through other means if any because on the other hand factory owners need smart productivity, reduction of costs and high profit, a process which will result in fewer people being employed.

This state of affairs victimizes the majority of young people in the country and as a result has a potentiality to create a conducive ambience for criminal activities from this section of the society for their potential energy to be wasted.

Unemployed young minds are always a danger to any society if not carefully absorbed into main-stream economy. A healthy economy is on the other hand a product of genuine societal political will, a trend which needs to be a norm in a society like ours. The current economic pressures seem to be deepening as more retrenchments appear to be on the card especially in the mining sector, a sector which absorbs a remarkable number of employees.

Loud voices have been heard and continue to be heard about unemployment, a situation which does not show any signs of diminishing. Instead, more fear is being instilled in the minds of many young people of whom many feel disillusioned about the prospects of ever being employed when they complete their studies. On the other hand, the banks are adding their voice on the trend of retrenchments as a result of digitalization which they believe will be to the best of their advantage.

Those who can recall the solution to the so-called Poor White Problem of the 1900s, during which the government of the day created more employment to its young and old people in a number of projects such as in the railway and road constructions in which most of them were absorbed and got relieved, but in today’s government you hear words like, ‘the government does not create jobs but a conducive environment for people to create jobs themselves’.

When you look back, the opposite appears to be the case. It is not possible for any previously oppressed person in this country who does not have land and money to start a tangible business which may enable him or her to end up creating jobs even for others.

Finding a shelter to sell on the street sidewalks or next to the taxi rank can never be classified as sustainable employment unless that is the basis of the current government’s ideal creation of a conducive environment for people to create jobs for themselves. You cannot expect previously oppressed people to be satisfied with a situation in which their belongings and items are moved to and from the sidewalks daily if they have to run their businesses effectively. Sidewalks are meant for people to walk in as they do window shopping but not for being used as shops where in some instances such street vendors face harassment from law enforcement agents. No one can even guarantee any safety to such street vendors.

A smart phrase ‘Small-Business’ can’t even be used as appropriate in reference to what these people are engaged in. If this is not a deliberate state confinement for life to the formally oppressed people to suffering, a new deal must be found.

This section of the people deserves conspicuous space to enable them accessibility to secure financial support in order for them to be pro-active contributors to the country’s economic set up. The economy should never be allowed to segregate people according to their races as a means of delaying their economic progress. At the same time, the economic lifestyle should supersede political lifestyle in order for the societal judgement to become fair since the majority of the people fall in this category because their lives do not depend essentially on politics but on the economic activities executed in the country. It is far from convincing to think that it is impossible for the state to find a new deal to turn the tide around for the benefit of the majority of formally oppressed people if political will exists.

It is actually the compulsion of the economic lifestyle which led to unprecedented corruption in this country. As such, it is the unprecedented corruption in this country which led to the State Capture Commission of Inquiry which drew many people to be summoned to testify. The economy is global. It does not have color. It is relevant to all the citizens of any country and it must not be made an entitlement only to certain people.

The economy has no allegiance to any section of the society but to all the people. As long as you are a human being, skilled or unskilled, your life depends on its activities. This is the sector that deserves a huge attention and resources in order to avoid undesirable reaction and unwanted actions from either individuals or groups. Therefore the state is not entitled to confine the economic freedom to any section of the people as this will become a recipe for dissatisfaction and ultimately for reaction.

It is therefore better to identify the root cause of everything that leads to a particular action than to wait to deal with its outcomes.

1.3. Education

The nation needs not to despair in spite of the state of education especially in public schools but to be encouraged to stand up and fight. The truth is, our current public education is in disarray and it will remain so for a foreseeable future. School education is detached from employment prospects. That is, education offered from GR. R through to Matric level is pure academic and therefore general. This is the area where dropping out is common.

In completion of Matric, if one cannot be fortunate enough to be absorbed by any employer who is kind enough to train him or her on a particular course, a minor one for that matter, one is bound to be unemployed for a long period of time.

Colleges and Universities produce a huge number of graduates each year but only for them to find no employment in the real world waiting for them. If only a small percentage of them find employment at the expense of the majority who in most cases wait for more than a year, the next year’s graduates automatically add to the unemployment statistics and so on and on it goes. If unemployment is at 29% plus in a country and majority of the unemployed being young people, how tragic a situation that is?

The reality is, any educational system that is not aligned to existing economic activities in a country does not equip young people to cope with the environmental expectation and therefore a shift in the system is fundamental for correction. Study and education are self-empowerment. Any hindrance to education is a deprivation.

If young people’s education is interfered with by anything, be it lack of planning, lack of discipline or crime, the future of those affected becomes bleak. Young people are the future of every country and therefore the state bears the responsibility to create an environment conducive for them to learn and access education that will open doors of the future for them.

Young people, particularly at the age up to matriculation level need closer and intensive care coupled with corrective monitoring. This is necessary for the simple reason that majority of them, if not all of them are still in a struggle to self-actualize. One may simply say, they are still in a lost world where adult guidance is a necessary need.

South Africa has a remarkably good potential to raise its youth and nurture them into a well political will that can be allowed to surpass self-interest from the powers of the day. The country is not in lack of neither human resources nor material resources to be able to bring about proper and equal education to all her young people.

Constitutionally, the so-called corporal punishment is prohibited in schools. In its place there is virtually nothing effective to be applied as a bit to assist teachers who deal on daily basis with young pupils at the said age to prepare them for their true potential educationally. Ultimately, their educational progress becomes prone to disturbances which emanate from ill-discipline and lack of self-control, the valuable dimensions necessary for their wellbeing. As long as these dimensions are missing, proper acquisition of fully-fledged academic education is doomed and so is their future to which they aspire.

If in any instance, a school is faced with one-is-to-twenty (1:20) learners being pregnant in any given year, in one way or another, educational progress is hampered. May be a few may realize the impact thereof while others may not. The truth is, a loss of weeks, months up to a year of studies is but a drawback to that particular child.

In our country, learner pregnancy appears to be a fashionable trend while the victims fail to grasp its impact for the future. It seems as if conscience suppression overrides consciousness of one’s aspirations. Should this really be the case?

Those who attended school prior to the democratic dispensation and got involved particularly in the eighties as teachers and perhaps in the current dispensation will be judges. It was not a matter of government system to avoid child pregnancy at school age but a matter of innate consciousness to one’s aspirations to achieve. Teachers would never be expected to do the nurses’ job by taking trouble to nurse a pregnant learner, no! Anyone who happened to fall pregnant would automatically stay home without even being noticed by others.

Though the individual educational progress would be disturbed, the dignity would have been preserved. The current system is contrary. A pregnant learner is allowed to attend classes throughout the gestation period until just before delivery and depending on the health condition may return to class soon after delivery. Is this the abuse of the constitutional rights by our young people? If it is, evidently, a huge amount of state intervention to create a shift in mental perspective of this generation to a new one is a requirement. If it is part of a valid and legitimate exercise of the constitutional rights, the state has a bitter pill to swallow.

It will mean, our young learners will continually swim in a mud of ignorance without being able to distinguish between good and bad moral values. It is therefore imperative that the state machineries, that is the Department of Education in particular is equipped as a matter of urgency with necessary tools to instill prime moral values in our young people particularly in the so-called public schools. Let alone the constitutional stipulations, without the acquisition of broader education from both the family and the educational institutions, our children’s future will not be guaranteed. (More in chapter 7)

1.4. Immigration

The unprecedented immigration into the country is not only problematic to the state itself but to the immigrants themselves. It is so uncontrollable that one wonders if it can ever be allowed in any other country in the world. It definitely comes with huge packages which baffles even the law makers and shakes up the constitution itself.

Immigration does not discriminate at all but pushes down its tentacles to the most vulnerable of which the majority are African in origin. It brings with it the illegalities which prompt unkind reaction from ordinary citizens who are frustrated by lack of employment opportunities to vent their anger or ill-feelings out on. It brings with it, xenophobic agitation which ultimately infringes in some distinct expectations of the very constitution upon which the country’s democracy is built.

It is evidently clear that the authorities of the day do not take sufficiently enough action to either control or manage it, a trend which is extremely scornful in the eyes of the international public. This in itself undermines the beautiful image of the country which emerged from the most undesirable past which was entrenched in divisive ideas which created a long-lasting scar which still needs to be healed.

In another sense, one may refer to it as unhindered immigration which instead of bringing harmony and love ends up causing brotherly antagonism and antagonistic relations not only within the country but internationally. Immigration brings with it a disclosure of lack of positional ideology of the authorities of the day which, without thorough exploration of the realities assumed that everyone from everywhere has a place in a squeezed space.

It is true that there are push factors in some countries for bulk emigration but that should not serve as an excuse for the porous border crossings which pave a way for unnecessary conflicts within the country.

Again, it is state versus the constitution and vice versa to ensure that both the safety and the freedom of the immigrants are guaranteed. The fact of the matter is, an ordinary citizen, aloud or silent is concerned about the current status quo, a message which must filter into the inner nerves of the state and its machineries in order to curb future conflicts between the citizenry and those who are perceived to be illegal immigrants.

The thrust of force and responsibility lies with the powers of the day to ensure that the status of immigrants is properly managed and well controlled in order to create a conducive climate for harmony in the country. Let it not be a case of disowning true responsibilities under the guise that such immigrants opt to settle in areas where they do not infringe on day to day activities of high- ranking members of the elite and therefore normal. As it stands, there are too many people to be sent to jail as a result of their reaction against those perceived as illegal immigrants, a situation which is not of their own making.

The more these types of events and conflicts are recurring, the larger the number of prisoners will be, bearing in mind that such reactions are spontaneous and their absence are never guaranteed. For as long as the absence of tangible regulations which not only govern the movement of the immigrants but strengthen the protection of South African citizens against any evil deeds emanating from the immigrants, a spontaneous societal reaction against them will never completely end. Immigration must not be treated with kid gloves because it carries with it huge implications some of which affect negatively members of the society in the proximity.

All in all, the best remedy lies with the authorities of the day in taking bold steps to face head-on the monster that creates the environment conducive for perpetual conflict amongst the children of the African breed.

Take note of this, an African cannot have a real enemy in another African but a misunderstanding. Education is the key to clear misunderstanding by Africans about other Africans. No African is born with hatred against another African. The fact of the matter is, hatred was instilled by those who came with the notion of dividing the Africans for their selfish intentions which ultimately began a race war. As such, lack of education amongst Africans about each other and about the grand design of colonialism in ensuring their purposeful division are the main contributing factors underlying the whole issue of misunderstanding and lack of acceptance of each other.

There is nothing further than the truth to say, tribal Africans are geographically well established wherever they are and they have to work harder under the circumstances to establish and strengthen their positions there. There should be no antagonism amongst Africans when coming to economic activities but, the upliftment. All Africans have to work harder to develop and grow their economies in their countries but working together in other parts of the continent. The fact is, it is an impossible dream to think of Africa without borders for as long as there is crime, law and prison. No one must think of widening a hiding place for criminals unless there is a tangible mechanism to eliminate criminal thoughts from the mind of criminals.

Once border control lacks, cross-border criminals will increase and as a result any kind of apprehension of such individuals will be difficult to carry out. It is very simple for an illegal immigrant to cross a neighboring country only to commit any kind of crime and escape back into his or her own without trace. What more if the issue of extradition between countries does not exist?

The reality is there is no need for neither a concrete nor steel wall between African states but the rule of law coupled with stringent application of common rules from both sides of the borders. Every leader in every country has a national duty to enlighten his or her subjects to stay clear of engagement in acts which overtly violates common rules only to start voicing echoes of sympathy from a distance. Every leader in every country has a national duty to educate his or her subjects to observe the law and set rules both in his or her own country and abroad. A clear understanding is every individual’s responsibility as a citizen of a particular country.

Every neighboring country which neglects cross – border rules needs to be dealt with accordingly. On this issue, leaders must stop pretending as if there will ever be a stage where borders between countries will ever be eliminated. No! That will never happen. A brotherly love will never mean the absence of borders between countries but a proper management of the borders coupled with full responsibility of leaders and governments affected.

As such, moving from your country to another involves application and in some instances, passport or visa. For one to find yourself in another country having by-passed all legal and proper processes is a cogent indication of lack of basic education or simply put, lack of serious thinking and ignorance for which your national authority has to take responsibility.

In this country, there are many foreign nationals from a variety of countries and not only from the African Continent but from others as well as from Europe. Very rarely if not at all will you hear of illegal foreign nationals from Europe giving troubles to the authorities. The simple secret being, they simply follow proper channels before moving from their countries into ours. The big question is, why do we have this big label illegal foreign nationals directed squarely at most African nationals?

This trend leaves much to be desired. If it does not emanate from lack of education, one may assume that it emanates from lawlessness. There is no excuse that because during