THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

South Africa faces a leadership crisis

I'm feeling a bit better today. Yesterday I was in the pits - angry, disillusioned and totally peeved off with this stupid home of mine called South Africa. The day started off well. Breakfast was good, the kids were fine with the youngest raring to get out there and enjoy another day of school holidays, the eldest off to write another prelim exam and the 'middle-mannetjie' off to golf. The wife was in a good mood and the sun was shining. A typical winter work day in sunny South Africa. I got into my office and as is my norm, tapped into my email to check the daily headlines on the IOL website and the first story to catch my eye was: "Robbers kill BMW Boss". Oh no! Who now? I clicked on the story and was saddened and shocked to read that Solomon (Manie) Maritz was murdered after returning to his Constantia Park home from a wedding. He was shot in cold blood in front of his 15-year-old daughter and died on the patio of his house. His wife, with their young toddler asleep in the back of her car, arrived home as he lay dead on the patio. Maritz was manager of the after-sales department of BMW and had worked for the company for the past 24 years. The report stated that two suspects had been arrested by police and would appear in court on charges of murder, possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition and armed robbery. So what? Without the death penalty, they'll live. Maritz is dead. The story of this tragedy threw me totally off. All I could think of was that once again, a good man had been killed by armed scum-bags leaving behind a devastated wife and two kids. The 15-year-old daughter had not only seen her father shot and dying in front of her but had herself been grabbed and held by the throat by one of the robbers. That huge trauma and my heart went out to her. Dammit man! When are we going to get someone in this country with the guts to be a leader and take decisive and tough action to put a halt to all this heartache and sorrow? To declare WAR on criminals who have gone to WAR against the good citizens of this country??? When? When? When? I will be most interested to read the statement that emanates from BMW on Maritz' murder bearing in mind that Dr Hansgeorg Niefer, chairman of DaimlerChrysler South Africa, said at DCSA's annual media briefing earlier this year that the potential impact of crime on investment was that "it could stop further investment." I still contend that leading businessmen have fallen far short of standing firm against the government on the issue of crime.

I then went to the next story headed 'Zim price freeze to continue indefinitely'. What this served to do was push me further under. Here again, the insanity of 'Mad Bob' is allowed to continue without any outside interference or actions taken by any 'leaders' in this region - especially by the one who could really make an impact, namely, our own esteemed President who against all conventional wisdom, continues to hold onto his mistaken belief that quiet diplomacy will save the day. On reading that story, I hung my head in shame as I thought of all the people in Zimbabwe who are suffering under the burden of this madman's policies - and South Africa continues to remain silent. Again, I ask: 'When are we going to get someone in this region with the guts to be a leader and take decisive and tough action to put a halt to the heartache and sorrow being endured by Zimbabweans through the actions of one madman who will do anything to hold onto power?' Forget the Southern African Development Community-led talks on Zimbabwe being held in Pretoria between Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Mad Bob won't pay any attention to them or follow any advice that emanates from them. He'll continue to do it his way - and his way only. So long as Mugabe is in power, the problems will remain - and will get worse. He is the problem and will remain the problem. FleetWatch stated this way back in 2000 when we dedicated our June 2000 cover story to the potential dangers that lurked under the insane decisions being taken at the time by Mugabe. Our cover graphic depicted him waving the entire region into a deep, dark hole as he went about his dastardly deeds with impunity. And he has done exactly that and still no-one speaks up against him. No decisive action is taken to stem his rule of insanity. Let the people suffer while the politicians fiddle.

I then closed the IOL website and looked into my email. There's one from the RFA. Let's see what it says about the good things happening in our beloved trucking industry. But alas, it's not good news. Rather, it's an advisory note to members telling them that the Department of Transport has advised the RFA that the few Training Providers that were "approved" by staff of the DoT for training drivers for PRDP-D are, in fact, not approved as the correct procedures were not followed. Individual emails dated 24 May 2007, or there about, were sent to these training providers by the DoT advising them that the approvals have been withdrawn. "On this basis - and to the best of our knowledge - at this point no training providers are officially approved by DoT," stated the RFA. More chaos. More confusion. More to sink the spirits and put you down. Just when you think things are going forward, you find you're going backwards. So that was my day yesterday. I ended the day asking the question: "Where are the Leaders? Where are they?"

I woke up today feeling a bit better. It would be a better day. I then thought of the Maritz family. It would not be a better day for them. That thought brought me back to reality. I picked up The Star newspaper and an article headed 'Mandela's absence growing more apparent' caught my eye. It was a most insightful piece written by Gershwin Wanneburg, who intro'ed the article with the words: "As former South African President Nelson Mandela retreats further and further from public life, his absence grows more apparent." That's exactly what I'm feeling. That's exactly what's happening. Since Mandela left the seat of power, the magic of South Africa has gone. The Statesmanship has gone, the leadership qualities have gone. It then went on to quote academic and columnist Xolela Mangcu saying: "The ANC misses someone like Mandela but he doesn't necessarily have to be Mandela himself but they have to find someone with...magnanimity. There are people out there who can play such a role. But I don't think the current lot (of leaders) are able to." That's exactly it! Mangcu is right. The current lot are not able to.

Wanneburg went on to contrast the magical moments during Mandela's reign when he preached "forgiveness to a starkly divided South Africa which had barely escaped a bloody racial conflict before its first democratic election in 1994". She recalled the magical moment after our 1995 World Rugby Cup victory when Mandela took to the field and again unified the nation. She then compared all that with the South Africa of today which, she wrote, "is dominated by often bitter debates around affirmative action, crime and foreign policy - all topics almost invariably split along racial lines. Whereas Mandela went out of his way to reassure whites of their place in the "new" South Africa, his successor President Thabo Mbeki is often accused of fomenting division by accusing white critics of being racist pessimists." Of the ANC, the article stated that today, "the ANC elite is bedevilled by corruption scandals and critics accuse it of abandoning the selflessness of the anti-apartheid movement as they jostle for power and a slice of the country's economic prosperity." 

What all this says is that we are lacking astute, courageous and respected leaders who will put the well being of all the people of our nation above any small, self-vested interests. South Africa is in crisis on many fronts but its main crisis is a leadership one. The trucking industry has a shortage of good drivers. South Africa has a shortage of good leaders. Neither situation is healthy for the future well being of this country.