"I’d rather be alarmist and wrong than be complacent"

Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya: Like spoilt brats, having gotten away with loutish behaviour without anyone saying a word, the anarchists kept pushing borders. Look at us now.

SHOOT: Well said. I'd rather be realistic and right and labelled an alarmist, than delusional and wrong and part of a dysfunctional collective. It seems to me an important thing - to be one of a few voices of reason crying out. A chorus is forming, and soon, I hope, an orchestra and a choir. This is how you effect change. By raising your voice, your blog, publishing a column and seeing others see the light, changing their hearts and minds and raising their voices too. Pretty soon hopefully we'll see decisive action.

clipped from www.sowetan.co.za As MANY South Africans do, I have at times dismissed as Afropessimists those who raise fears about South Africa ending up like some of the failed states of our continent. I have pointed to the strong institutions we have, such as the very progressive Constitution and a vibrant civil society. The recent anarchic developments of people looting shops because they are hungry and others destroying public amenities because they want more has had me revise my views. I’d rather be alarmist and wrong than be complacent. Things are bad in our country and the sooner we accept this, the better. The anarchy enveloping our country can be explained by the biblical simplicity of reaping that which you have sowed. The chickens have come home to roost. The ANC-led government is reaping the whirlwind. Let us not beat about the bush here, the ANC has sown the seeds of the chaos we are experiencing now. On closer inspection we would have been naïve to expect differently.