This morning i posted this:

Maybe Financeministergate was a sneaky ploy to unite the country cos I have not seen quite so much unity online for a long time…

…after one of the funnest thirty minutes i have spent on Facebook and the Twitterer in living memory [Except perhaps on Wednesdays at 1pm when i’m hosting SA’s premier Hashtagging game @AFrikkinHashtag of course].

Just as tbV and i were heading for bed, i noticed on the Twitterer that we had a new finance minister. Wait, not the last new finance minister of a day or so ago, but a new new finance minister. Although turns out it was the old finance minister. The one before the one before the one. And so it went on.

We were just there at the right time and right place for the Social Mediawebs to explode and they did. i, of course, tried to do my bit and came up with a few friendly statuses or stati, or something:

Zuma playing a game of Change the Minister? Facebook and Twitterer, I invite you to explode and Go… [For those not in the know, I am talking about the new finance minister. No, the OTHER new finance minister]

More like Minister of Fine-Ants-in-your-pants…

It’s like the producers of Generations have taken over government ministers post placements?

But probably my most successful was:

Knock Knock.
Who’s there?
South African Minister of Finance.
South African Minister of Finance who?
Exactly.

My mate Dave from The Kifness provided this Kiff chart:

pi.png

The one i probably thought was the best was the typical Oprah, “Look under your chair, slash wherever they keep Finance Ministers, because:

oprah

Followed closely by this Trevor Manual/Lionel Richie Mashup, or was it Adele?

trevor

Out with the old [wait, no that already happened so more like out with the new] and in with the new [who, was we established was also the old – so hard to keep up here] and before long, there were songs:

The majority crowd favourite seemed to be this one:

Most of the humour and confusion and fun related to what i am calling FinanceMinisterGate just cos no-one else has yet, whereas it quickly moved back to his royal showerhead,  Jacob Zuma, or perhaps in terms of his Finance Minister Managingness, Jacob Zooma, and Eusebius McKaiser was one of the many who was not going to let it sneak by him:

And even the Rand, or at least the parody account for the Rand, because the actual rand is dropping too quickly to send out tweets, had this to say:

However, let’s return for a moment to my initial status:

Maybe Financeministergate was a sneaky ploy to unite the country cos I have not seen quite so much unity online for a long time…

i kinda jest, but i also kinda don’t. There has been SO MUCH negativity on Facebook lately, related to the first firing of the finance minister, which eventually prompted me to post this:

Zuma must fall Schmooma must fall. I don’t see it. Let’s say tomorrow the ANC goes, “aw man, we have been looking at white Facebook and it’s clearly time we got rid of Zuma” and they replace him. What then?

Because to me it seems like there is a whole lot of corruption etc etc through much of the rest of government, MP’s and then those who run various of the key institutions and businesses in the country. I think “Zuma must fall” is too simplistic and wishful. This is way bigger than that.

Also it’s just so negative. The light expels the darkness. So the question bouncing around in my head is rather WHAT MUST RISE? Because that can happen from the ground up, and that we have a lot more personal say in.

Self-sacrifice, honesty, integrity, people who care for the other, embracing foreigners, abandoning wealth and replacing it with enough or a simpler living mentality, Justice, accountability, volunteering, collective resource sharing, truly listening to each other… and more – these are all things that must rise.

‪#‎SouthAfricansMustRise‬

We’re that to happen on the ground level causing such a swell that it reached the peaks of leadership of our country, we wouldn’t even notice the moment that Zuma fell because it would just happen naturally somewhere in the background. The ants outnumber the crickets.

i really love that tag: #SouthAfricansMustRise and within an hour of posting it i stumbled upon this, so maybe the line was buried in my subconscious or something, or maybe more than one of us came up with it at the same time:

SAflag'phoenix

The mythical phoenix bird rising from the ashes? What a beautiful and powerful image and while many people have been intimating that it is a Both/And [As in Government and people, which is true] we don’t have a lot of power and control over the government and so we need to start with ourselves and as individuals, as families, as groups of friends, as communities, be joining hands and working together towards a #SouthAfricansMustRise

Think of it, before The Change of the Finance Ministers, when was the last time South Africa was so unified? Probably the 1995 Rugby World Cup victory comes to mind as does hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In Cape Town we saw it to a huge extent with the big fire in February this year that threatened to sweep across the peninsula and even in recent week after the violence and unrest in Masi, huge groups of people joined together to bring relief and resources. The xenophobia attacks a few years ago were another instance were people just gathered together and worked alongside each other regardless of colour, language, wealth, religion etc…

So maybe it is up to us as individuals and then groups on the ground in South Africa to look for spaces and occasions such as these to embrace the unity when it comes and build on it. And then look for more and more on a regular basis as well as be creating our own and getting involved in the many great programs, organisations and groups that are doing great things to bring about change.

A PLACE OR TWO TO START

My buddy Terran’s wife Julie [also my buddy actually] wrote this amazing blog to parents about why they are choosing to stay in South Africa [as parents of FIVE children]. Whether you have children or not, go and read that piece and be inspired – this is the kind of thinking and action we need to be leaning in towards to see this happen.

As is this series of posts i have been sharing from the book ‘Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger’ by Ron Sider, which i have been reading and which is a very challenging but necessary look at what we claim to be about and are actually about, especially when it comes to money.

And then finally, a little more in your face one [which i love] from someone called Nicole Dunn on Facebook who says some of the stuff i have been saying or trying to say, but always nice to see it being said in other peoples’ words so check it out:

 

Dear self-righteous white South Africans

I’m more than happy to jump on the anti-Zuma train with you all, but let’s take a moment to reflect before we blame everything on the ANC. Sure, the party hasn’t championed the cause of equality, development and social welfare, but they didn’t create the inequities in the first place. A millennium of exploitation and racial discrimination was never going to be undone in 21 years, especially not by a government alone. What have you done to make this country more equal?

It took a rapidly falling currency to make you wake up to the reality around you. Isn’t that so selfish? You’ve watched years of poor service delivery and corruption go by because it hardly affected you; it affected the distant poor who are just a statistic in your book. You’ve consistently supported an opposition party that is set up to protect your privilege, because ‘everyone wants to change the world,’ but god forbid you have to make a sacrifice for that change to actualise.

This is the time to take responsibility for the country’s past and for its future. Acknowledge your privilege and do something about it. The age of conquest and self preservation needs to come to an end.

So go ahead, march for Zuma’s removal and the end of corruption, march for equality and freedom. But many of you calling for political action now went into hiding during the ‪#‎FeesMustFall‬ protests. You can’t choose your battles based on privilege any longer. To win the war for equality, the world as we know it needs to change, and that includes the dismantling of the white hegemony. [Nicole Dunn]

But perhaps it is going to take a lot more as this article which looks at the #ZumaMustFall as a reconstellation of racist myths whites tell themselves… by Kelly-Jo Bluen [which first appeared in Business Day] and contains these words:

In investing so zealously in #ZumaMustFall, white South Africans are continuing a tradition of disinvesting from examination of our own complicity

Indeed, white enthusiasm for #ZumaMustFall aligns with white South Africans’ love for uniting around causes that serve our narrow interests, while absolving ourselves of responsibility for SA’s sociopolitical and economic malaise.

In focusing singly on Zuma, white South Africans expediently ignore the role of unsurpassed privilege — and their refusal to relinquish those alienable components of it — in explicitly marginalising black South Africans.

We ignore the role that white supremacy plays in structuring the economy and society.

But go and read the whole thing.

And finally, i will leave the last word with Nandos, cos we know they are the champs of it:

nandos

What do YOU think? Does it feel like South Africans might be more aware of their power and capacity? Is change on the way or is this just another smokescreen? Would love to hear some thoughts in the comments.