The Big Read: Is that a clot in the gravy?

29 November 2016 - 09:22 By Tom Eaton

There's blood in the water. Sorry, false alarm: that's just a cranberry juice being nursed by an anxious comrade over by the buffet table; the one who's quietly practising saying, "Congratulations, Comrade President Ramaphosa!" over and over so he doesn't cock it up when he says it for real.Still, something seems to be shifting. There might not be blood in the water but there's definitely a clot in the gravy. And, for the first time in a long time, South Africans are allowing themselves to think about what comes next.Of course, some of us are struggling to think anything at all. For example, last week, a DA counsellor in Cape Town, tried to organise a "march against grime" during which homeless people would be asked to "move along".She wasn't clear about where "along" was. One could be unkind and assume she was thinking of somewhere with less grass, circa 1962. Or you could be charitable and assume she literally had no idea and that the DA's official policy is to shunt social issues into the next ward and hope they simply vanish.After all, it's worked for Cape Town when it comes to pumping raw sewage into the Atlantic. I don't know which PR agency is handling the shitstorm in the city's sea water, but they're fantastic. Last year there were reports of tourists coming down with "food poisoning", and I can't wait to hear which local industry gets thrown under the bus this festive season. (Cue a reassuring male voice. "Are you a tourist? Have you recently swum at Clifton? Are you curled up in your shower, vomiting and crapping uncontrollably? You've clearly got altitude sickness from climbing Table Mountain via an unsafe route! Next year, try the cable car!")Most DA supporters, however, seem to want a government like the one in Sweden. Because Sweden works. Mostly at H&M, but still. It's also very safe. I visited Stockholm a few years ago and was warned that I was staying in a murder hot spot: a drunk had accidentally stabbed his buddy to death a few months back and the locals were still reeling.My hosts were proud of how economically equal their country was, and I had to agree that I had seen very few poor Swedes.That's because most of them were now Americans. Something that tends to get overlooked in South Africans' Scandinavian fantasies is that, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, about a fifth of Sweden's population - mostly poor rural people - upped and left for the New World.Which is why, when I hear people wishing we could "be like Sweden", I have to wonder where they're planning to send the 10million poorest South Africans. "Move along", indeed.Of course, not all South Africans want to live in Sweden. Many, I discovered this week, want to live in Cuba.In the days following the death of Fidel Castro, I learned from my compatriots that he had left behind a small piece of paradise in the Caribbean, where children received excellent free education and everybody received excellent free healthcare. Yes, a few political opponents had received excellent free bullets to the back of the head but, as one local Castrophile said on Facebook, "It doesn't matter what you do to your enemies as long as you serve the people." (And then we still pretend to be confused when Jacob Zuma uses the country as a bidet.)The EFF stated that Castro's death had been painful to them, but probably not quite as painful as the death of Venezuela's economy, a Ponzi scheme they once punted as a model for South Africa to emulate.Still, the fighters will also be looking to the future and refining their plans to give the land to the people. Not the title deeds, of course, but long(ish) leases contingent on party approval are basically just as good.Perhaps that's why many, if not most, South Africans are allowing themselves to start dreaming about the possibility of the return of something called "the good ANC".In case you're confused, the good ANC is the one that's going to "self-correct", the way rich people throughout history have decided to be less rich and to let more poor people into their club.It's also the ANC that says it's not seduced by populism or demagoguery. Well, except that one time when a charming young player called Julius got it pregnant, hung around just long enough to see his big, bubbling, bouncing, buffoon of a baby brought into the world, and then buggered off. The good ANC might cling to its imaginary virtue but its track record suggests the only thing it's good at is being used by Big Men on the make.So what comes next? Your fantasy is as good as mine...

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