What's up in SA today?

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South Africa has crawled out of the recession, The Times reported on Wednesday, 25 November 2009.  The first recession South Africa experienced was in 1992, the very year my father was shot and disabled.  "It is not yet time to celebrate," said Lindani Mbunyuza of the Treasury, as though we are waiting with baited breath to pop open the champagne bottle and go on a shopping spree that not even Paris Hilton can compete with.  The South African economy is expected to recover in nine months.  What will we birth then?  Hopefully the unemployment rate of 24.5% will decrease dramatically, giving hope to its citizens and decreasing the crime rate, making the impossible possible. 

The most talked about topic in South Africa at the moment is the Jackie Selebi corruption trial, an ongoing saga involving convicted drugs dealer Glenn Agliotti and former president Thabo Mbeki.  Regardless of the details, the association alone declares the government corrupt.  And another favourite topic of debate in the news, especially favoured by 5FM DJ Gareth Cliff, is ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, whom he deems, in no uncertain terms, an idiot.  

What personally astonishes me is the charge for genocide against Mbeki and former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, which is absurd.  As journalist S'Thembiso Msomi writes, "blaming the country's lethargic response to this crisis on one or two individuals is to be economical with the truth."  He adds that it is far more important to give antiretroviral drugs to those in need and actually do something now rather than look back and blame people for the deaths of so many.  Prevention is better than cure, in both cases. 


  





  

 


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