Premium: Implementing ubuntu in spite of our government, not because of it

Several years ago I found myself being questioned at an airport in one of our neighbouring African countries. I will remain as vague as possible in my description so as not to prohibit or compromise any possible future ventures into that country. They can be nasty like that. When asked what my occupation was, I stated that I was a journalist, not thinking all too much of it. I was part of a delegation of South Africans who were in that country to offer humanitarian relief in the wake of a catastrophic force of nature that had killed hundreds – if not thousands – of people.

My job was to cover the work many brave and passionate South Africans were doing to help assist families find and recover the remains of loved ones buried beneath collapsed buildings and in mudslides. I remember, quite distinctly, how angry I became when I was made to jump through several bureaucratic hoops before I was allowed to even think of raising a camera to film. This included having to meet with several government ministers and military bigwigs. All, rather condescendingly, made it clear I wasn't particularly welcome and they'd be watching me. And watch me (and all of us) they did. We had "minders" from police, intelligence, and goodness knows who else following us around.

When the time came to hand over humanitarian aid to those suffering greatly in the wake of a natural disaster, politics reared its ugly head. Aid couldn't be seen to be coming from anyone other than the government in that country and so the military wanted to confiscate it from the delegation. Word on the street was that the military was only distributing aid to communities and areas that had voted for the governing party. Rather than partake in the madness of practising politics at a time of national crisis, a decision was made to return the aid to South Africa. I didn't like the decision but I could respect it. This experience impressed on me a profound sadness that most governments don't care about their people. They're stocked full of politicians who can think no further than the next pay cheque or the next election.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___