I celebrated a cold and wet freedom day in front of a log fire with no electricity and a pile of uncollected refuse in front of my house. But as those dreary white lefties never tire of pointing out, I should be grateful. There are many people in this country that don't even have electricity, who live in shacks without the luxury of a log fire (or even a wine cellar) and are perpetually surrounded by uncollected refuse. And this is supposed to make me feel better? Well, it doesn't.
Sixteen years ago, on a sunny day, I joined the snaking queue to cast my vote in the first democratic election in this country. Unfortunately the KISS party didn't get in but I was still happy that the people's choice, the ANC, were now the new government. Obviously there would have to be some changes made and what had only been available to the privileged white part of the population under apartheid would now be available to the entire population. That would obviously cost money but you get a warm feeling knowing that your taxes are going towards bettering the lives of those less fortunate.
The best thing about the new South Africa though was that it would be non racial. People would be appointed to positions based on their talents and skin colour or religion wouldn't be a factor. Of all the burdens lifted from our collective shoulders, that had to be the best reason to celebrate the 1994 election. Obviously there would be a few minor adjustments to repair the damage of the past but, by and large, South Africa was a shining example to the rest of world....the rainbow nation.
Standing in that election queue in 1994 and watching President Mandela's inauguration a few weeks later I confess to having a warm feeling about this country. With hindsight, the same sort of warm feeling you get when you invest in something like Masterbond at 3% higher than your neighbour is getting.
The first real smell of rotting fish came with the announcement that we needed to buy a large quantity of expensive weapons. There had been earlier minor scares such as the late Peter Mokaba (spiritual guide to Kiddie Amin) who had come up with the brilliant idea of taxing departing foreign tourists to make them pay for the fact that the tourist industry was 95% white owned. But it was the now notorious arms deal that really gave an early indication that things were starting to go badly wrong within the party dedicated to bringing a better life to all South Africans.
Surely a greater priority would have been to build more power stations. That's hardly with the benefit of hindsight either. If you aim to provide 45 million people with electricity as opposed to providing 10 million you need at least four and a half times your current capacity (no pun intended). But the ANC either didn't understand that or thought the acquisition of weapons was a greater priority. So Alec Erwin was told to placate the stroppy whiteys and explain that so many jobs would be created locally if we bought weapons from the Brits, the Swedes and the French that it would be unpatriotic and probably even racist not to do the deal.