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Missing out on good old basic values

The endless adoration of money and the glaring error that equates success with cash is making us oblivious of the foundational values that formed this nation.

Today the whims of big business and the wishes of the empowered classes are the only national agendas. The rest are expected to pay tribute in the same way mourners pay tribute to a dead person.

All the tears that are shed can never be enough to nourish the corpse back to life and the glory words that are spat by the speakers can never inspire the deceased to get back on their feet, and say: “Yea, now that I’ve seen how much you love me, I’m back for the second term.”

So the health of our nation, education, transportation and matters that relate to the soul are dead on the agenda. They will be invoked from time to time like the names of accidental ancestors that have no bearing on the change of fortunes. They have been trampled to death by the stampede to the vault by the moneyed classes and the aspirant classes.

South Africa was imagined and built by the working class … the maids and the gardeners, the street diggers and the miners, the farm workers and the many others.

It’s winter. The windows have misted up and the kitchen is warm from the breathing of the children who are packed like sardines, one’s head at the feet of another and so on. Some can’t lie still. They kick in their sleep. They kick off the blankets and they also kick the head.

The cock crows but mum is already awake. She instructs the eldest child to wake up and clean the coal stove. She removes the ashes from last night’s fire. She puts the newspapers in, then the wood which had been chopped the previous day. Once the fire catches and it’s promising, she puts in the coal, slowly so that it doesn’t kill the fire. Then she fills the kettle with water so that everyone can have enough to wash and drink tea before going school.

Mother has many worries. She hopes that there will be no incident back home; that no kettle will fall on the younger children and burn them. She is worried that they won’t get to school on time.

She doesn’t even feel the cold and then suddenly she sees a figure coming her way. Her heart starts to beat faster … could this be the day that she screams for the last time? There is no one else nearby, so no one will hear her screams.

Could this be the day that her children become orphans? The figure is coming closer and he is a man. He is wearing a long coat and as he gets closer she makes a little prayer. She gets the courage to look up, to see the eyes of her killer, if it comes to that. He shoots out his muzzled greeting and walks past.

Another worry: will the bus arrive on time? Will her missis fight with her for not getting her children ready for school on time?

Mother is a hard worker and instills those values and virtues in her children.

Middle son is struggling at school. He turns to soccer, which he sees as work and not just play. He is mildly talented, but he is the first to arrive at the training session and the last to leave. Twice a day. He became a professional footballer and buys mother a better house. That’s progress.

But son need not worry, today, because mother will get an RDP-house, and son will get children and take their grant money. But son will miss out on the glory that comes from hard work.

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