INLSA
In a previous article I expressed the view that we have lost respect for continuity (also respect for experience, but that is a different story). It is also difficult to conceive of a continuum from which it is impossible to escape.
We are attracted to new beginnings and the notion of consigning the past to irrelevance. This, it seems to me, is characteristic of a modern and progressive age where things move very quickly and the challenges are often different from those that taxed our predecessors.
Of course, when it is expedient to do so in order to lay blame and exonerate ourselves, we dredge up the past and attribute to it a range of current ills which completely defy the reality that history is about context and we should not view past events, nor judge the practices of the time, within a perspective of a contemporary context.
When children were forced to work down mines, it was acceptable practice and the later development of moral outrage was a reflection of how mankind was advancing on its march to the better recognition of human rights. It’s only by later standards that this was wrong.
The same may be said of slavery and colonialism, both of which, mercifully, became rejected over time. We are appalled at the notion that exclusive gentlemen’s clubs forbade women to enter through the front door, and perfectly respectable and decent people were blackballed and denied membership because they were of the wrong colour or religion. These were all acceptable discriminations at the time, for there has never been some over-arching moral code that stood aloof from the people and their customary habits.
We cannot escape the past, nor should we waste time and energy railing about it. It has left legacies that we must deal with, for our future welfare depends as much on doing so successfully as on ensuring that we go forward in a progressive and acceptable manner.
Legacies are not all challenges that we have to endure; many are riches which add lustre to our well-being now. The state of education is not in this latter category, as we well know. In this sphere there is an awful legacy of deprivation and inequality and it has presented the ANC government with the most daunting of challenges.
But how does one account for the fact that many people, including eminent educational experts, consider children in many schools to be worse off than they were 20 years ago? This inequality is not just about absolute conditions, but also relative ones, for advantaged children who attend private or quasi-private schools are notably better off than their parents who attended similar schools years ago.
In Pietermaritzburg the municipality found itself with the monumental challenge of compiling an asset register from scratch to satisfy the new legislation and the auditor-general. Imagine having this challenge.
No such register existed and now assets, which the municipality didn’t even know it had, had to be listed. Current ratepayers had to foot this bill which, as can be imagined, was a very large one.
The dilemma facing the government of today with regard to acid mine drainage is acute. The cost of addressing this problem is estimated to be of the order of R924 million (and counting, I’m sure). The government’s allocation has been reported to be no more than half this amount.
In the past year or two, the government has been criticised, either explicitly or implicitly, for not dealing with the problem. I’m sure there are many in the country, who, listening to these criticisms, blame the government for causing the problem. Of course it didn’t.
It has inherited from a previous time a supreme example of environmental insensitivity and complete indifference to the welfare of the public. It is the current taxpayer who must bear the brunt of the cost of correction.
It could not happen now because we have enlightened laws which reflect the mores of our time, but then there was no legislative restriction, nor was any activity of this nature considered pollution.
