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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) (1491 Views)
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State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 11:19am On Dec 18, 2019 |
We are all Nigerian now? South Africans have caused spectacular ripples across the globe this year. But also in 2019, my scribblings and notes-to-self grew about whether we are edging closer to being a failed state. For all of 2019, the feel-good moments of great sport and fabulous ambassadors and a thriving music and arts scene were often reason to be proud and hopeful. But the nagging feeling of state failure grew in intensity in 2019. What will a new decade hold? Where will we be in 2029? ONE HELL OF A YEAR: Great success and abject failure for South Africa in 2019 FULL ARTICLE: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-12-18-great-success-and-abject-failure-for-south-africa-in-2019/ WRITER: Ferial Haffajee (Former Editor: Mail & Guardian / HuffPost South Africa) Nigerian culture is the centre of cool right now. Its online companies and streaming music and film services are the talk of the connected world. Its writers, artists and thinkers are firing up imaginations from Dakar to DC. A home to Nobel winners through the post-colonial decades, the country breeds leaders for global financial services, for the arts, for engineering and for the brains trust to explain and advance our world. But the state is failed, despite new-age governors who are approaching government and governance with modernity, influenced by leaders like Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew or Rwanda’s Paul Kagame or the contemporary thinkers at the Harvard School of Government. Still, on the whole, it does not work: there is no power and Nepa, the Eskom of Nigeria, is a national joke. It has been for long. Successive task teams and promises of change delivered by presidential candidate after candidate have failed. The din of generators is part of the soundscape of Nigeria’s cities. Sound familiar? It’s happening here too. With every round of load shedding, generator sales go through the roof. So do sales of inverters. How we talk about Eskom is how Nigerians talk about Nepa – unfixable, corrupt and the thing that holds back an African country from being modernised. ...
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Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 11:37am On Dec 18, 2019 |
INTRO: (WRITER: FERIAL HAFFAJEE) I haven’t gone cuckoo. But this has been an extraordinary year for South African can-do and fabulousness. In New York, Trevor Noah chalked up first after first: he filled up Madison Square Garden, The Daily Show bagged an Emmy nomination and Noah is in the top-10 league of the world’s best-paid comedians. The Ndlovu Youth Choir got into the top two of America’s Got Talent finals; Sho Madjozi was the breakout talent of the year, and when she wrote wrestler John Cena into a song it went stratospheric. The Bokke played a beautiful final to bring the Rugby World Cup home. Then the Blitzbokke played magnificently to triumph at the Dubai Sevens. 3 To cap the year, Zozibini Tunzi took the Miss Universe sash and turned it into a cool feminist moment when she counselled young women to take up space and noted that people of her colour and her natural hair hadn’t made the leader boards before. What a fabulous statement. The world went wild with wow. Thebe Magugu won the LVMH International Fashion Showcase. Liza Essers took the Goodman Gallery global. John Kani scooped up more awards to make him one of the world’s leading thespians. As head of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka continues to create campaigns for empowerment that are original and interesting. I could go on. Keeping a list of South Africa’s world-class people, companies, institutions and organisations who create ripples across the globe is a hobby. And I am never short of ideas to add to it. 1 Like |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 11:41am On Dec 18, 2019 |
HAFFAJEE CONTINUES... But this year I’ve been scribbling something else too. Every so often, I come across something which surfaces, a thought I quickly banish and it is this: the state may be failing. I banish it, for it’s too awful to contemplate for the beloved country now free, or a little free, after its brutal history. The struggle for this freedom was long and hard. It was hard-won by great women and men. It’s tough to say that their efforts may have been squandered by the inheritors of their political mantles – but as load shedding hit and not a single politician in a Cabinet that is still among the world’s largest, and not a single Eskom executive (the utility has more managers than the average listed blue-chip by multiples) knew what to do, the thought went from hazy to clear. Is the state failing and did we put too much faith and trust in the ability of a single man, President Cyril Ramaphosa, to fix it? My scribblings and notes-to-self grew in 2019. Take, for example, Astral Food. Unable to rely on the Lekwa Local Municipality to provide clean water without which its plants can’t run, the company’s been forced to build its own water treatment plant. Then, closer to home, I am on community WhatsApp groups for Ward 58, which covers the working-class Joburg suburbs of Crosby, Brixton, Mayfair and Fordsburg. On those groups, local state failure is clear. A few weeks ago, an exasperated community member said she had killed her third 3kg rat in a week. This rat plague is common across the country. On every measure, those areas have failed. 2 If you look through the auditor-general reports it’s clear this is a general story across municipalities. Sometimes I find succour in the World Bank accounts of what a truly failed state is (technically, we are not one); but how do we prevent failure here with the layers of incompetence in the state growing faster than Game’s profits from generators during an episode of Stage 6 load shedding? The nightmares grow: one of the definitions of a failed state is when a government can’t protect its people. Crime in South Africa is so out of control that we live lives completely disfigured by it. The Maverick Citizen series on mothers who lost children in the Cape ganglands was remarkable. It was also astonishing how commonplace the mothers’ stories are. It’s not okay to live on your nerves as we do, to have lives so punctuated by crime that the abnormal becomes the norm. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Nobody: 11:42am On Dec 18, 2019 |
What is/are significance of this post now 1 Like |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by nengibo: 11:43am On Dec 18, 2019 |
Nepa no longer exists sir |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Yujin(m): 12:23pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
The writer is very correct. SA is on a downward spiral. Their own PHCN called ESKOM is starting to fail. Generator sales is growing and China is selling big. The funny thing is that ONLY a sensible white SA government can revert the impending failure. The same route Nigeria followed to be at the present doldrums is exactly where SA is treading. Exposed people like the author and the OP have no where else to cry but Nairaland. Many black SA are starting to realise that no one will hear their cries but their fellow black people. But who will help them? This is the big question. CERTAINLY NOT THE FAILED NIGERIAN state. It's a tough world for Africans especially the Blacks. Chai! 1 Like |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by ConqueredWest: 1:37pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
Yujin: How South.? You no dey try to call me at all. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 1:41pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
Yujin: Actually, the article was posted on a popular and thoughtful South African website. The author is over-reacting though. SA will get its act right sooner than later. 9-years of Zuma misrule can't be fixed in less than 2 year by the current administration. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 1:43pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
Waterview: To remind the world Nigeria is a failed state. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 1:44pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
Waterview: |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Yujin(m): 1:48pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
ConqueredWest:No vex my guy. I nor know your digit o. I nor dey South again. I don migrate. How ur side? |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Yujin(m): 1:53pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
TMKsouth:Hopefully but I doubt sooner. The rot is beyond Zuma's misrule. He gave enough instances down to municipality levels across all provinces. It's gonna be a tough process for SA. 1 Like |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Nobody: 2:07pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
TMKsouth:well, you ain't far from the truth, naija is a failed state. But, do you think we need your input ? If only you could divert the time you used in typing these loads of Bullocks to starting an awareness on HIV epidemics in your home country. (I hear 6 out of every 10 people selected at random are positive) Violence against women... Poverty..... Crime... If Nigeria is a failed state ( we all know), your country is also a failed state. Pot calling kettle black, nonsense. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by rdokoye: 2:32pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
Yujin: What does skin colour have to do with anything, after all, it was the White SA government that caused all the problems. If they'd taken into account the indigenous population, when developing the nation, South African wouldn't have had such a huge infrastructure deficit at the end of apartheid. 1 Like |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 3:31pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
Waterview: Then why is there ONE WAY traffic to SA from Nigeria. You should respect yourselves more than that - risking your lives to cross into another "failed" state. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Nobody: 3:38pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
TMKsouth:And who are the Nigerians coming to you failed country ? The last time I checked Nigerians aren't even in the top 20 immigrants in your HIV infested country, get lost joor, ko koshi dalun You'll think their country issa paradise the way they run their mouth here. Awon olofo 1 Like
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Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Kapilta(m): 5:32pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
TMKsouth:this is something i really hate. Lebanon don't even have Nigeria population but you will surely see Lebanese in every nook and cranny of the earth. Now imagine Nigeria 'a black nation' of almost 200 mill. I intentionally put that black nation because we all know black nations (almost all) are all failed states hence there will be movement. And again i wonder what the obsession is with every other black nations too. I still do not understand how Nigeria is always in their mouth whenever they want to make an illustration of everything bad. Zimbabwe, your closest neighboring country, do they enjoy constant electricity? I doubt, even if they do, there are 54 recognized African countries of which almost 50 or so are black nations and of all these black nations only few can boost of development or let me just use constant electricity as regards this discussion, but here you are handpicking Nigeria of all. This thing is so common to you lots(other black nations) that i sometimes wonder if the name 'Nigeria' sell article or whatever faster than the rest of its counterpart. You lots don't even ever consider the mental health of Nigerians, yes, Nigeria is a failed state but the way the rest of you act like you are in anyway better and all come together to make it seems Nigeria is totally different from the rest is tiring. Go to Ghana, go to Kenya, go to Liberia, Sierra leone. Cameroon. How can i be Nigerian and just want to travel to somewhere else just to have peace without hearing the name Nigeria and Nigerians but it's almost possible once your are in any black nation. We are heading to 2020, y'all should please stop. 1 Like |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Yujin(m): 8:17pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
rdokoye:I don't beat about the bush. So far, no black controlled country has been able to develop and sustain a country to be a second world country let alone being among the first. SA black controlled government inspire of their improvement of the affairs of the black population have failed the country at the national level. O yes, it has nothing to do with colour but so far so good, only the white government holds any promise of development. This is the sad truth. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by rdokoye: 8:28pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
Yujin: Isn't Botswana a second world country? What about Gabon? There are many medium developed nations in Africa. So what you've written is untrue. That said, there's no logic behind your reasoning. The facts, as I've outlined them are simple: the massive infrastructure deficit in the country is due to the WHITE government. So how could you possibly conclude that they are the only ones that could/can fix it? Since you don't know nor understand white people (I'm assuming you were born and raised in black Africa, due to your lack of dignity and self respect), let me tell you what they would do. If white people were to reclaim control of South Africa, all they'd do is implement policies that benefits their demographic at the expense of the locals. And as justification, they'd simply blame the locals for their own predicament. South Africa doesn't need further entrenchment, it needs BOLD African leaders, that are willing to do whatever it takes to safeguard its people. Even if it means stepping on white peoples hands. That's the main problem in South Africa, the HUGE wealth disparity. White people control EVERYTHING in South Africa, and they're not willing to give it up. South Africa's economy needs to be redistributed, all must eat, or they'll forever be chaos in the land. 1 Like |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Yujin(m): 8:38pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
rdokoye:Lol at Gabon and Botswana being developed. You don't know Jack. None of those countries are close to the level of SA developmentally. My friend, even SAns know that their black government have failed them. Blacks generally have so far proven not to be able to handle countries properly. There's no single black country different from the rest. I'm not saying all blacks are incapable of a positive change. Of course, some blacks have contributed greatly to advancement in various fields of endeavours but you and I know that non of them will be allowed to head a country. It's our collective fault. SA as at present have no such visionary leader. That is not debatable. Even Malema is not fit for the job. 1 Like |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by rdokoye: 9:49pm On Dec 18, 2019 |
Yujin: If we're going to have a discussion, you could, at the very least, read and comprehend what I've written, before responding to it. How am I supposed to refute what you're saying/writing, when it isn't based on anything I've written? I didn't say Botswana or Gabon were 'developed'. I said they were second world countries. No nation in Africa is developed. South Africa, as I've said, on many occasions, has a huge infrastructure deficit. Which means...the infrastructure in the country, isn't enough to accommodate it's population. So development in South Africa is superficial at best. Blacks? What colour are you? Are you a white person? 70% of the world's nations are developing, so we could argue that most of the human races has proven an inability to handle a nation properly. But that's a very simplistic way of looking at things. Most countries, at least in Africa, are very young. So it's a little premature to come to that conclusion. Great Britain (the country of my birth), took 200 years to reach developed status, and that was with access to 50% of the entire planets resources and wealth. South Africa doesn't need visionary leaders. Running a country isn't rocket science. All South Africa needs is bold leaders. Leaders that are willing to do what's required. They know what the problem is, and how to fix the problem, they're just AFRAID to do it. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by ConqueredWest: 7:40am On Dec 19, 2019 |
Yujin: Where you dey now.? |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Yujin(m): 12:21pm On Dec 19, 2019 |
ConqueredWest:You no expect me to write am here now. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 5:46pm On Dec 19, 2019 |
Waterview: Please spare me. Your own Nigerian organisation here claimed some years back that through the issuance of membership cards there were around 800THOUSAND of u. U people would sell your own mothers for a chance to live in SA. Remind me again how many Nigerians returned home following September's round of violence here? A paultry 400 or so. I laugh in all the 11 official languages of South Africa. 1 Like |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 5:56pm On Dec 19, 2019 |
Kapilta: Shame I actually feel for u. You are probably one of the very few Nigerians who have a conscience. But your own countrymen ruined your reputation abroad throughout multiple decades. Nigerians were welcomed with open arms at the dawn of democracy in SA. But u abused that goodwill. Today u r persona non GRATA in SA. African countries don't have secret meetings behind your back. YOU are the problem. Fix yourselves first. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Nobody: 6:01pm On Dec 19, 2019 |
TMKsouth:If you like laugh in 1000 official SA language, I don't give a fvck. The official figure released by to ur motherfucking immigration says otherwise. Your country is just like every other African countries, mediocre........... Not even the best, to me is < than Nigeria in all ramifications. The way you guys run ur HIV invested mouth here baffles me, soilsista .. who might be a victim of gang rape is found of talking trash here. Your country is no USA Germany, Australia or UK ... It's just a regular African country. 200 years voyage back. |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 6:55pm On Dec 19, 2019 |
Waterview: I'm sure u typing this from some rat-hole in Hillbrow. How bout u host a Soccer/Cricket/Rugby World Cup first & then u can come back compare yourself to mighty SA. We bid against Western countries & win for these events. That speaks volumes. 2 Likes |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by Nobody: 8:50pm On Dec 19, 2019 |
TMKsouth:K |
Re: State Of South Africa 2019: We Are All Nigerian Now? (Influential Editor Writes) by TMKsouth: 3:24pm On Feb 18, 2020 |
Waterview: k2u2 |
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