MOSIBUDI MANGENA
AS the festive season approaches, the mood among most of us might be as gloomy and dark as a cloudy and moonless midnight. With good reason, our spirits might be down.
But we also know that clouds do dissipate and the sun does inevitably come out, lifting our spirits as it shines in the sky.
Although the now paused Zondo Commission is good in revealing the state of thievery and malfeasance in the country, the downside is a knock on our confidence in those that are in positions of authority. These processions of wrong-doers squirming in the hallowed chambers of the commission might make for some good television, but they also leave us bereft of good men and women we could trust with our public assets.
But even with this, the arrests that were made towards the end of the year suggest that we might be at dawn. It suggests that the sun would come out in 2021 when the corrupt face their comeuppance in the courts.
When that sun comes out in 2021, we would see the looters of the VBS bank and the alleged diverters of funds to the Guptas, meant for the removal of asbestos roofing from poor people’s houses in the Free State, facing the music.
The steep resurgence of the Covid-19 infections in some parts of the country has compounded the somberness of our mood this season of travel, joy, togetherness, relaxation and family reunions.
For fear of infecting our loved ones, some of us might be reluctant to travel and socialize with relatives and friends. It is particularly hard to imagine that we would not be able to spontaneously hug and kiss our elderly relatives, who as medical science tells us, are most vulnerable to this coronavirus. The same with our sickly loved ones who are in hospitals or are at home with underlying health conditions. It feels almost unhuman to desist from visiting, hugging and comforting them.
President Matamela Ramaphosa, in his exhortations for us to protect one another, hit the nail on the head when he said this year’s Christmas might be the last for some in our society would celebrate. It is to be hoped that this punchy way of putting it drove the message home to a lot of citizens and would contribute towards restrained exuberance on our part.
What all this means is that we should muster enough discipline to postpone our usual human relations gratification until the pandemic passes.
Such a postponement of gratification should also apply to our usual religious, sporting and social gatherings that might contribute towards denying some in our midst more Christmases beyond the 2020 one.
That the sun would rise in 2021 and kindle our hopes of controlling the Covid-19 pandemic, is reinforced by the images of Britons and Americans receiving their vaccination jabs against the virus.
Even though we know that as part of the developing world South Africa is at the end of the queue for reception of the Covid-19 vaccine, we are sanguine that our turn is not too far away.
It should not be forgotten that South Africa, through its excellent scientists in our universities and other research institutions, is part of international consortiums formed to develop coronavirus vaccines and that we are taking part in trials relating to some of them.
So, we may postpone some of our gratifications for at least this festive season, secure in the hope that the sun would soon rise and with it, the darkness that envelopes us would go away.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic is an international phenomenon of enormous proportions, it is also true that as a country, we have gone through many trials and tribulations and survived. We will also survive this one.
