There are victims everywhere you look, so no one is a victim

The danger is clear. When politics becomes religion, accountability becomes heresy

- Donovan E Williams

“Whenever a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies’ there’s a little fairy somewhere that falls right down dead.” That’s what Peter Pan tells Wendy in JM Barrie’s classic novel Peter Pan - The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. When Tinker Bell is dying, Wendy has to say she believes in fairies so that she can live.

Right now, I wish I could believe in the “fairy” of the new South Africa.

Every time I have to treat a traffic intersection like a four-way stop because the traffic lights are broken, my belief in the dream of a South Africa able to overcome its apartheid and colonial legacy dies a little.

Every time I have to swerve into the opposite side of the road or onto the pedestrian pavement so as to avoid a pothole or unfinished work done on the road by the local municipality, my belief in the dream of a South Africa able to overcome its apartheid and colonial legacy dies a little.

Every time I see water gushing down the street and no one attending to it, my belief in the dream of a South Africa able to overcome its apartheid and colonial legacy dies a little.

Every time I see the police at a traffic roadblock, usually a block or two away from the broken traffic lights, ostensibly checking driver’s licences and vehicle registrations but instead shaking down foreigners or those with traffic violations for “cooldrink money”, my belief in the dream of a South Africa able to overcome its apartheid and colonial legacy dies a little.

Every time the electricity goes off, my belief in the dream of a South Africa able to overcome its apartheid and colonial legacy dies a little.

Every time the taps run dry, my belief in the dream of a South Africa able to overcome its apartheid and colonial legacy dies a little.