A friend asked the question, and I answered it… from a Good Things Guy perspective, from working on the frontline and telling stories of ordinary citizens working tirelessly to make our country better!
Johannesburg, South Africa (20 July 2022) – How do we fix South Africa? How do we fix the country? Don’t say vote out the ANC. That’s in two years. We don’t have two years. We don’t have two minutes. Besides, saying another party would be better is once again delegating. How do WE fix it?
The other day Melusi Tshabalala, a friend of Good Things Guy and the creator of Everyday Zulu, asked this simple question.
I thought that I would share my answer here too:
Working in the field that I do, I see ordinary citizens working tirelessly to make the country better. Every single day.
Hundreds and thousands of them.
They get up every morning and feed the hungry, try to put a stop to the crime in their communities, fix failing infrastructure, assist with educating the youth, help victims and try to hold our leaders accountable for their actions.
It’s this active citizenship from these South Africans that chips away at our current state of the nation.
They are physically making it better.
How do we fix our country? By doing the same. By becoming the “helpers”.
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At least that’s what I believe.
Will it be easy? No. Will our leaders start to feel guilty for their failures? Not so much. Will it suddenly fix the loadshedding? Nope. Will it fix poverty and stop horrendous crime? Most probably not.
Well, not at first.
But if more people choose to get involved – like physically get involved – then it just might.
Get to know your ward counsellors, get to know the head of police in their area – put their phone numbers in your contacts! Support organisations and charities trying to make a difference, attend community meetings, report things that you feel are not right, join volunteer community policing forums, help clean up your area and stop giving the traffic officers cool drinks to get out of a fine.
And even though it might feel like you’re not getting anywhere, keep going.
I have seen entire communities change from gangster-ridden places with no street lights and no hope into safe spaces the polar opposite of what they should be – because community members got involved.
The trick is to be better than our “leaders” because it’s not our government that make South Africa great… it’s the people who don’t follow their example.
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