Yesterday, the Constitutional Court decriminalised dagga use in private, which made for a pretty good Tuesday all around.

That said, the news was also filled with more terrible tales of crime and corruption and all that jazz, so yin and yang.

Let’s try and maintain that upbeat vibe, though, and check in with Max du Preez, whose latest News24 column is titled “There is reason for hope”.

Max says that hope has become this country’s “scarcest commodity”, but that the secret is to see beyond the smoke and mirrors, to close your ears to the incessant noise for a while and soberly assess what lies at the root of our problem”.

I dunno, sounds like he might have been celebrating that ConCourt ruling with the rest of us.

Anyway, here’s more from his column:

South Africa indeed got a second chance when the ANC got rid of Jacob Zuma nine months ago and replaced him with Cyril Ramaphosa. Many of us were just a little naïve to believe that the massive damage the Zuma regime had inflicted on our politics, our nation and our economy could be undone in a short time.

Ramaphosa surely has his shortcomings, but we should laugh at those who now call him Zuma Lite. This accusation usually comes from opposition parties that are embarrassed that they focused solely on Zuma for years and had no strategy when he left the Union Buildings.

Our economy is in dire straits, no doubt about that. Zuma and Co’s maladministration, state capture and corruption cost the state more than a hundred billion rand, left our state-owned enterprises very deep in debt and foreign debt sky-high. It knee-capped our revenue service and scared investors away.

Sheesh, Max, can we get to the “hope” part, please?

But the bright side of that is that this rot is in the process of being stopped and reversed, meaning in future we will make much better use of state resources.

The weak rand has more to do with the problems in Turkey and Argentina and with Donald Trump’s tariff wars with China than with our weaknesses and the high fuel price is also beyond our control.

We are technically in recession right now, but probably not for long. Even Moody’s Investor Services declared last week that it expected South Africa’s economic growth to pick up slowly and so likely avoid a credit rating downgrade. “We expect a broad-based recovery, and the worst is probably behind us,” it said.

Last week’s crime statistics are a source of deep concern. But for the first time in years we now have respected police professionals heading the SAPS, Hawks and crime intelligence, so there is reason to be hopeful.

There is also hope that the national prosecuting authority (NPA) will be more functional soon and that the rule of law and accountability would be fully restored…Once the NPA and the Hawks are up and going, we can actually expect to witness politicians, senior civil servants and business people being led through the jail doors wearing orange uniforms.

Slowly but surely, those ANC factions that have been gunning for Cyril Ramaphosa’s downfall are also weakening:

Ramaphosa is being hamstrung by his opponents in the ANC, but the ousting of North West’s Supra Mahumapelo and the unity list of leadership in KZN showed that he’s slowly winning the battle.

As I write this, I have reason to believe that Ace Magashule [below], secretary general of the ANC and chief planner of Ramaphosa’s demise, is increasingly being isolated and could be neutralised before long.

The days until next year’s general election will be dark and stormy. Many more people will lose their jobs before then. Prices are going to go up and up.

But I have little doubt that we will emerge from this more or less in one piece, and probably a bit stronger.

South Africa is nothing like Venezuela or Zimbabwe.

It’s worth mentioning that only last month, Adriaan Basson, News24’s editor-in-chief, literally wrote an article comparing South Africa to Zimbabwe and it wasn’t pleasant.

I applaud Max for remaining hopeful, and I like where his head is at for much of that optimism, but there’s one major flaw in what he has to say. If the State Capture commission of inquiry is teaching us anything, it’s that the ANC rot runs so, so deep.

Some of the head honchos gunning for Cyril’s head may be ousted, but further down the food chain are politicians who aided and abetted the years-long looting of this country’s coffers.

Oh, and what about David Mabuza, our vice-president, exposed for corruption on a sickening scale?

Anyway, happy Wednesday.

[source:news24]