Unlike many people, especially those critical of the ruling party, I don't see the story of
Carl Niehaus as a sign of
"endemic corruption" or a
"breakdown of morals" in the
ANC. I know the excited, baying crowds, jumping up and down on the sidelines have been waiting since 1994 to say "We told you so!" (Of course they will deny that they are racists or that they really believe that black majority rule can never work).
They will spew lofty words like
democracy and
morality and
leadership and
rule of law. Wonderful, noble and great goals to strive for and exactly the kind of stuff I would love to have in place if I lived in a perfect society.
But I don't.
Do we forget so quickly? We live in South Africa.
It has been a VERY short time in history since we have been a FREE country.
I have Jewish friends who still won't buy a German car and when did the war end? (WW ll)
Does a soldier with post traumatic stress ever not duck and hide when he hears a car backfire? Does a beaten dog ever not cringe when you put out your hand towards it? Does an abused child, when grown, up ever "get over" the trauma?
This generation of South Africans and maybe the next will be too close to the horrors of apartheid - the "Crime against humanity" - to always function in the nicely packaged acceptable Western normal way.
Some escape with less scars, others with more.
We just have to deal with it. And not throw everyone under the bus.
I feel sorry for Carl Niehaus. I wanted to
klap him when he went on and on, on TV like this was his last confession. I can only imagine how embarrassing it was for the ANC.
I thought Carl should have got himself a therapist long ago and sorted out his problems. Hopefully we will do so now, and find some peace.
