It’s the time of the year when we indulge in the obligatory end-of-year reflection. In this year of the Covid-19 pandemic we have had very little time to think of anything else — and it has been a big year for the country.
SA has been downgraded to junk status, the Zondo Commission has heard more evidence of corruption, and maladministration, the ruling alliance has been chewing at its own limbs to break free from the Sisyphean rock it has to push back up the hill of trust and moral respectability.
The DA, Donald Trump and Andile Lungisa have kept the laughs flowing. The EFF, our home-grown fascists, have kept a low profile, emerging only to “talk” to people they consider racist, or just white (or “non-African”). Which basically means they want to apply violence as part of their politics of revenge, race-baiting and scapegoating.
Chief Justice Moegoeng Moegoeng used his freedom of speech to spin yarns about mythical figures and invisible friends, and Ace Magashule, Jacob Zuma and Markus Jooste are still free to come and go as they please. So, apart from the chief justice’s religious fundamentalism, John Steenhuizen and Helen Zille’s sanctimony and silliness, the years has been “meh”.
Two things of lightness stood out; Tito Mboweni’s culinary adventures and Jerusalema, the SA music and dance sensation that has spread around the world.
Personally, I have had a year that started badly and ended badly — about as bad as when I signed my resignation letter (heavily drugged up and sick as a dog) from Nelson Mandela University in 2017. While I can’t talk about that, or I will get into trouble, I can talk about 2020. I carried into the year a wound of late 2019, and it has not healed.
The year did start out well enough. In January I was commissioned to write a book. The first three chapters were returned as being “too academic” — they wanted a more popular book — and by the time I rewrote them, the pandemic had arrived, we entered lockdown, and I was unable to travel around the country to interview people, and dig around archives to complete the rest of the book.
I had to go back to the publisher with my tail between my legs. I’m not sure when or whether I will get back to that book ... I did receive another commission a few weeks ago, and look forward to working on that one in 2021. It will also bring me back to Nelson Mandela Bay a few times.
Fast forward to October 5. While driving past an informal settlement, protesters threw a rock through my car’s window. It split my lip, crushed my bottom (right) teeth and shredded the inside of my left cheek. The rock broke my jaw and fractured my skull, and I subsequently learnt that I had post-concussion symptoms.
Since the attack I have had my bottom lip stitched together, two plates inserted to keep my jaw together, a plate and screws in my mandible, and by the end of February, I should have nine teeth implanted, and a bridge built and inserted. At that point, my medical bill will amount to about R228,000. Since I left NMU, and because I am legally prohibited from telling any potential employer why I resigned, I have had to scrape a living as a struggling writer.
There is a moral that I can pull from all of this. I have received the most comforting support from friends around the world. I have had former students and friends send kind messages of support. One friend has helped (enormously), towards paying the initial round of bills.
What I came to realise is that if you treat people with dignity and respect, and you hold the line of ethics and moral responsibility, things have a way of working out. There will, of course, be people who have vested interests, or who want to protect their reputations, feel threatened or emboldened to shore up their ill-gotten gains, privileges and advantages (and hide their odiousness behind veils of innocence, sophomoric slogans, and bumper sticker philosophies), but things have a way of working out.
And so, 2020 has been a year of ups and downs, with more downs than ups, but the line of ethics and moral responsibility I strove to hold, has shown me that there are people who remain loyal, kind and decent. They see beyond the lies, smoke and mirrors, self-dramatising and apostasy, and the performativity of mean-spirited people. For their help, over the past few weeks since the attack, I am extremely grateful.
As for the political economy of SA, I don’t expect any miracles next year. Take care, dear reader, and stay safe and healthy in 2021 — follow protocols set out by the scientists. And for the record, I don’t hate white people. The race card works both ways, you know.