bugsThe 1998 animated Pixar movie ‘The Bug’s Life’ saw a motley crew of reject bugs take on a swarm of locusts.

Through the elaborate creation of a designed and engineered fake bird contraption they almost succeeded using trickery, but at the last moment their elaborate scheme unravelled and for a moment it looked like the locusts were going to have the last say. Until one of the ants was able to help the rest of the ants realise that by sheer numbers alone they had the beating of the locusts.

That should have been the beating of apartheid in South Africa. When 4 million people are telling 41 million people what to do, you know it’s only a matter of time before the power shift changes. It was always going to be inevitable and was maybe just a question of when.

But now apartheid has at least officially been asked to pack its bags and leave. The hearts and minds and systems have followed and are following a little more slowly, especially in some places and groups where it was more strongly entrenched, but great progress has been made, and more is on the way.

For me, one of the hardest things to try and swallow, when it comes to the New South Africa has been the fact of widespread corruption in government, especially notable after Nelson Mandela moved on and relinquished power to firstly Thabo Mbeki and now Jacob Zuma. It seems like every second week we hear a new scandal about this minister who has spent this crazy amount of money on a new car or trips overseas or how this deal was made with this guy’s brother’s company or else how the government is about to spend millions on their latest celebration or breakfast.

All the while, the poor people, in particular, continue to struggle. Most of whom are still black although the race distinction seems to be moving more and more towards and economic class distinction where both the very rich and the very poor are starting to be people of all different shades and first languages.

Which brings us back to ‘A Bug’s Life’ – maybe it’s time for the ants to group together and rise again…

Micah Challenge South Africa is one group that is trying to shine a light on corruption, especially when it comes to affecting the poor and i think that is an important thing and so take some time to check them out and see how you can get involved. But one person or group shining a light is not going to be enough. We have to each one of us realise that when we put our voices together, when we add our little piece of light to the action, that we can achieve so much more. And that our collective weight is enough to bring about change. So how about it, South Africa? How close are we to joining together and saying with all the collective energy we can muster: “ENOUGH!”

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This post is part of a synchroblog to shine a light on corruption. Please join me, Micah Challenge South Africa, and others in the Exposed2013 Campaign. We are making a difference together. [notice the links]

Read what others are writing with me:

Arthur Stewart – http://differentchurch.wordpress.com

Wendy Lewin – fromtheouterlimb.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/fighting-corruption-passionate-but-absolutely-clueless

Duncan Scott – http://duncanscottza.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/exposed-2013

Sarah Dlamini – http://dlaminis10.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/why-should-i-care 

Micah Challenge South Africa http://exposedsa.wordpress.com/