Call me an optimist, but the two big state-related news of the week tell me SA’s government really is listening to the message sent by voters in the Local Elections.
The ANC’s proposed change to the constitution to effect property confiscation (EWC) was always going to be short of the two thirds majority needed after the radical socialists said it didn’t go far enough. But what should hearten rational minds is how 26 ANC parliamentarians voted against their own party’s position, presumably for the right reasons.
Similarly, there was maturity in the way government batted away Big Business’s demand for the introduction of mandatory vaccinations. Data shows while vaccines don’t stop Covid infections, they do reduce the severity of the symptoms. But trying to force something onto South Africans, even if it is “for their own good”, is an invitation to spirited resistance.
Our Young Democracy appears to be growing up.
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