By Peter Kimemia

Christmas is here again and the year has gone past at a terrific speed for some while for others it has been agonisingly slow and they cannot wait to see in the New Year. Indeed the year 2008 has been a mixed bag of fortunes and tragedies.

The Transformer team has endeavoured to cover some of the major events around the country and beyond even as we stepped-up our development, democracy and governance work on the home-front, especially in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces.

We featured some pretty depressing issues such as the unprecedented post-election violence that bedevilled Kenya in early 2008. Readers were appalled by the disregard for the rule of law and just how things could go horribly wrong under the circumstances. We note with a guarded sense of satisfaction that besides the warring parties choosing a negotiated settlement, a commission of inquiry has since unearthed the perpetrators of the senseless violence and the names have been handed over to the International Court of Justice (ICC) at The Hague for possible prosecution. This will hopefully help end impunity, especially among the political class.

The unending circus that is the tragedy that Zimbabwe has been turned into was next in line among some of the major political events of the year. Sadly the problems that existed before the March 2008 elections worsened towards the run-up to the run-off of the Presidential vote in June, in which Robert Mugabe competed against himself and ‘won with a landslide’ after his opponents opted out accusing him of using nasty tactics. The long-suffering people of Zimbabwe have never known peace since then and efforts to resolve the political crisis have increasingly been hampered by the intransigence of Mugabe and his party, Zanu-PF. In the meantime, on top of hunger and starvation and the highest rate of inflation ever recorded anywhere in the world, the people of Zimbabwe are currently facing a devastating cholera outbreak.

All these problems are as a result of extremely poor or no governance.

Further abroad, the ‘Obama Factor’ is still very fresh in our minds and in a way some are still wondering whether it is a reality or they are in dreamland. At a time when economies were crashing and the future looked uncertain the world over, it was quite refreshing to see the USA shed its history of racial bigotry and demonstrate leadership in tolerance and some measure of racial harmony and appreciation. It was particularly special for African Americans and Mother-land Africa. We appreciate the fact that he has enormous challenges ahead and that his focus will be on the USA’s problems but that still won’t dampen the celebrations, pride and sense of hope any time soon, especially on the African continent. Barack Obama’s election as President of the USA will go down in history as one of the most inspiring events of 2008.

Back home in South Africa, I think we do have a very good reason to collectively hang our heads in shame after what a select few of us did early in the winter season this year. In May 2008, a bunch of blood-thirsty hooligans descended upon our townships and hamlets and inexplicably robbed and murdered in cold blood hordes of foreign nationals who had all along been their neighbours. The world watched in horror as frightened human beings were bludgeoned with crude weapons and even burnt to death.

The government was slow to react and by the time attempts were made to stop the mayhem following an outcry from the international community, at least 62 innocent victims of xenophobia lay dead. Thousands more opted to leave and face uncertainty in the countries from which they had fled while others have been living in makeshift camps ever since.

In the midst of all this carnage, violence and intolerance, one anonymous philanthropist from Port Elizabeth came to the aid of a displaced refugee family from the DRC whose heart-rending travails had been aired on Carte Blanche. This particular person and countless others that lent a helping hand displayed a sense of humanity innate in the majority of South Africans but which was under threat from a few misguided elements who had attempted to push us into a state of lawlessness and intolerance.

Perhaps its on the basis of what happened that we need to look back especially during this Christmas and ask ourselves what contributions we can make towards the development of a more humane society, one that values human life more than anything else, one that is tolerant and not given to the kind of violence that we have all witnessed this year.

Please keep the peace even towards the run-up to the forthcoming elections. Most of all may you participate actively and peacefully in every activity that contributes to good governance. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, won’t you?

First published in the Transformer Vol. 14 No. 6 / Dec 2008 - Jan 2009