Yes, I'm a white South African and you might be a black South African. Yes, we might have different frames of reference when we look at history. But despite our differences, despite the different teams we support or the different parties we vote for, we have one thing in common.
None of us wants to be screwed over.
We all want a fair deal, and we all despise corruption.
Another thing we have in common is that we all want our country to be the best at everything. We want the best soccer team, the best cricket team, and the best rugby team. We want our actors to win Oscars, our scientists to win Nobel prizes, and our writers to win Booker awards. Whatever your ethnicity or gender or age, we all want the best for our country because we love this bloody land!
However, I think most of us will agree that we are not getting the best of everything in South Africa these days. Our sports teams are average at best, local productions on TV are barely worth the TV licence, and one rand cannot even buy you a decent amount of Wilson toffees anymore.
Some of us are angry and some of us just stopped hoping. Yet we still wake up in the morning, drag ourselves out of bed, and pray that nobody will screw us over.
These are all things we have in common, whether you are black, white or in between.
So for once I would ask everybody to forget our differences and to just pay attention to this one thing we have in common. Forget how you hate me or your neighbour's barking dog. Forget how you hate this or that political party or that sports team or your spouse's taste in music. Focus on what we have in common as South Africans, that one thing:
We are currently being screwed over big time by Jacob Zuma. Period.
The biggest disgrace is that the entire ANC side in Parliament has failed in their duty to serve the people of South Africa. What they've forgotten is that voters and supporters of all parties, including supporters of the ANC, have one thing in common, this one thing that binds us all together, whether you are black, white or anywhere in between. We all want an honest president we can trust.
The ANC refuses to listen to us. Every time an attempt is made to root out corruption, it comes from the opposition benches. When the opposition tables a vote of no confidence, the ANC refuses to support it. Not once have they tabled their own vote of no confidence in Jacob Zuma to even save face. Instead, they choose to protect this demon in their midst.
Why is that? Who do they serve? The people or themselves?
Or are they all just a bunch of spineless cowards?
The time has come for those members of parliament who still have some moral values to rise and to put their constituents ahead of their own interests. The time has come for those members to stand and to say enough is enough. The time has come for them to be decisive and to lead.
For our part, as ordinary citizens of this great country, it's time for us to also rise, to mobilise peacefully and to demand a clean government. It's time for us to let these people know they work for us.
So go to your wards and town halls, go to your branches wherever they are, go to Nkandla if you must and pitch up your tent in front of the gate, and let these people who assume to be our leaders know: Nobody will screw us over anymore. What we give, we can also take away.