Corruption,
Load Shedding,
Bribery,
Death tolls,
Poverty,
Racism,
Gender based violence,
Isolation,
Lockdown,
Bans,
Global Pandemic

These were the things that people heard about
These were the things that haunted us,

We knew they existed, yet choose to ignore it,
In a country that is so broken,
Where Load shedding is a normal thing,
Seeing beggars at the robot a normal sight,
Hearing famous names being called out for injustices done to women…. A normal sound

Was this really what we wanted,
The day that Nelson Mandela walked out of prison on the 11th of February in the year 1990,
Was a day of celebration,
A sign that injustices were going to end,
The sign that we looked for,
The Beginning of a New South Africa

Yet it was the beginning of

The Never-Ending Promises that were made by political parties,
The Vows the were filled with nothing but hot air,
The Lies that we believed like Gullible guppies,
The very things that broke us and hurt us beyond repair.

They call us The Rainbow nation and we like to act proud about it.
But the fact of the matter is,
That we spit on that title every day,
The things we say, the things we do,
We swore to never harm one another,
Yet turn a blind eye when a man raises his fist,
Against a Women and Child,

We can sit here all day and blame the past,
But the truth is that we will never escape that darkness,
If we keep dwelling in it, if we keep allowing it to live in us,

Apartheid was created to separate us and hurt us,
Hence the word A P A R T,
Yet when we were supposed to heal and join, we were too scarred to look towards the promised land,

The Power that Corrupted our minds so much, that we have turned against our own people,

The stupidly of it all,
the fact that we can still go on with our lives when all these horrors plague our country,
disgusts me to say that this is our norm.
The Fact that it took a Pandemic for our eyes to be opened, the fact that many loved ones had to before we started to listen,
How can we live like this?

We have put our lives in danger,
We have put Democracy on trial,
We have no trust in our police force,
Women and children are living in constant fear,
We seem to be living in the Dark ages as candles have become the latest trend,
There are more holes in our street then on the moon,
And the Unemployment rate seems to be on the rise,
While the mental health of many seems to decline,

When are we going to WAKE UP?
When are we going to STAND UP?
When are we going to stop blaming others and see our short comings?
When are we going to say no to GBV?
When are we going to stop Saying we are going to solve our problems and start solving it?

When my dear country are, we going to fulfil our destiny and reach our dreams,
When Are we going to be the BEST THAT WE COULD BE?

I will tell you when,

We will do it the moment,

WE

OPEN

OUR

EYES