The TV is blaring politics. "Order! Point of Order, Honorable Mshweshwe." South Africa is once again in a state of false hope and euphoria. We have a new president. I, unfortunately, do not have much hope in the man, as he is a representative of the same corrupt political party that our prior president headed up, the man who thought he could cure AIDS with a shower, Jacob Zuma. The country is hopeful, almost desperate for someone to pull us out of the mire. I am not optimistic. I am sad. I am thinking of leaving my homeland.
Rape and murder is a familiar story on the news, and I can't take it anymore. Our infrastructure is falling apart, while Zuma swims in his firepool at his mansion built with our tax money.
I want to leave. My heart breaks.
In this insane chaos, there is precious beauty. There are stories of love, union and pain. I always feel at times like these, we are more united as a country than ever before.
To be South African, is to be resilient. We are hard working bastards. We are tolerant. We LOVE hard. We are not called The Rainbow Nation for nothing.
I hope for change. I hope that corruption is abolished. I hope that my hope is not false. I WANT to stay. I want to have babies, and I want them to be South African. I want them to feel the African sun on their skin, while playing with their friends in the sand. I want them to defined by their intelligence and honesty, and not by the colour of their skin.
My hopes are that the people of South Africa realise that corruption needs to be extinguished. That a welfare state is not the way forward. We CANNOT pay people to stay at home with the hardworking every man's money. We cannot have free everything. It is a vicious circle; welfare and many freebies create a culture of laziness, a people who will rather wait for handouts than work for their money. The more handouts, the more tax. The more tax, the less money to go back into our beautiful economy.
In all of this, I remember that I am a child of God. I remember that my God has always got my back. I am always protected. I am grateful. I am hopeful. I pray for my country, and I stay put. I am an African child, and this is where I stay.
Africa Unite.