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| Africa Subsaharan |
| S Africa is losing its way - Tutu |
| 2006-09-27 |
| Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu has warned that South Africa is in danger of losing its moral direction. He said it had failed to sustain the idealism that ended apartheid and warned of growing ethnic divisions. Referring to South Africa's high murder rate and the rape of children as young as nine months, he said the African reverence for life had been lost. The retired Anglican archbishop opposes ex-Vice President Jacob Zuma becoming president due to his "moral failings". Mr Zuma's presidential aspirations received a major boost earlier this month after corruption charges were dropped against him. He was acquitted earlier his year on a rape charge. Archbishop Tutu said the country had achieved a remarkable degree of stability in 12 years of democracy despite problems poverty, Aids, corruption and crime. But delivering the Steve Biko memorial lecture at University of Cape Town, he questioned why a respect for the law, environment and even life, were missing in South Africa. "What has happened to us? It seems as if we have perverted our freedom, our rights into licence, into being irresponsible. Rights go hand in hand with responsibility, with dignity, with respect for oneself and for the other. "The fact of the matter is we still depressingly do not respect one another. I have often said black consciousness did not finish the work it set out to do," he said. Zuma's comments on HIV during his rape trial shocked Aids activists. He said government officials often acted like former officials during the apartheid era - treating people rudely. He said South Africa should oppose xenophobia and act sensitively when place names were being changed rather that appearing to gloat and ride roughshod over the feelings of others. He also made a plea for people to pick up litter, to care for their own environments and for their fellow citizens. "Perhaps we did not realise just how apartheid has damaged us so that we seem to have lost our sense of right and wrong, so that when we go on strike as is our right to do, we are not appalled that some of us can chuck people out of moving trains because they did not join the strike, or why is it common practice now to trash, to go on the rampage? He said that South Africa remained a wonderful country that had produced outstanding people - such as Steve Biko, the anti-apartheid leader who died in police custody in 1977. "The best memorial to Steve Biko would be a South Africa where everyone respects themselves, has a positive self image filled with a proper self esteem and holds others in high regard." "Perhaps we did not realise just how apartheid has damaged us" ..... never too late to blame someone else. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #11 The question is, how to change this. And the answer includes holding people accountable for their actions going forward. There is nothing so depressing as the prospects of SA. It is headed to regression to the pre-European state. This is well advanced in Zim-bob-way. Perhaps after they hit bottom, they can start to rise again, but there is little to indicate that we can do much to change things for the better there. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-09-27 17:36 |
| #10 They've been trying to mend the tribalism since Lucy first napped beneath a Jackaranda.... no luck so far. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-09-27 14:50 |
| #9 I agree, for the first generation. By the 3rd or 4th, IMO it helps to create it. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-09-27 12:39 |
| #8 Oppression doesn't create bad character. It only exposes it. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-09-27 12:21 |
| #7 -- warned of growing ethnic divisions-- Back to normal. tribal. |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2006-09-27 12:21 |
| #6 The damage inflicted by apartheid is not unique. The same pattern can be found in many places that were under communist rule for decades. Where people have little or no control over their lives, they soon decide they have no responsibility either. Where they have a corrupt and oppressive government, the first generation may will rebel, if only silently in their hearts. By the 3rd generation, corruption, veniality and violence are accepted as the way things are. It takes time to undo that. I am no fan of the current SA government, nor of Tutu (whom I've met). But on this point he is absolutely correct. The question is, how to change this. And the answer includes holding people accountable for their actions going forward. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-09-27 12:12 |
| #5 "he said the African reverence for life had been lost." Hard to loose something that never existed. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2006-09-27 11:40 |
| #4 We see the same failures every day in Nawlins. What is it about black politics ? |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-09-27 11:06 |
| #3 The failure of the whites to remove apartheid properly in good time Yes, of course... precisely white Dutch and English failure, always the cause. Colonization appears to have worked somewhat favorably in American, Australia, New Zealand... but for some reason, well, need I go on? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-09-27 08:46 |
| #2 Another African Dreamland going down the tubes. Yeah, I'm as shocked as you, Dez... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-09-27 08:44 |
| #1 What did he expect from the triumph of a communist movement? The failure of the whites to remove apartheid properly in good time has left them with the disaster they now face. Hard to tell for whom to have less sympathy. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-09-27 08:06 |