Here's a rewrite of an old proverb that's appropriate for the new South Africa — Greed comes before a fall.
FOR a few weeks now, much of Cape Town has been in caught up in a state of joyful excitement. The beautiful people and those who wished they were beautiful people painted their faces, wore the tee shirts, and followed the dress code. For the first time since Van Riebeeck's ilk wrested control of this land from the unsuspecting natives, Cape Town became a black city.
In less than two hours on Saturday night, that euphoria has been washed away. The Western Stormers have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Corné Krige's boys — trounced and humiliated before a capacity home crowd at Newlands rugby stadium by the Otago Highlanders — have slunk off with tails between their legs to consider their plummet in status from heroes to heels.
It doesn't take much to explain how all of this has come about. It's got everything to do with the disease which poses the greatest threat to the survival of our society and which, still, is stereotyped as an exclusively black disease.
It's a disease all political parties are aware of, yet choose to not discuss as part of their election platforms. It's a disease that spreads with blinding rapidity, causing the collapse of industries and loss of jobs, and heaping destruction upon the education and health care systems.
I'm not talking about Aids.
You won't find "entitlement" in the complete Oxford dictionary, which is a good thing because they way I use the word has nothing to do with being entitled. Entitlement as I use it reflects a belief on the part of any person that he or she is deserving of a reward as a result of factors other than their own efforts.
Think about all the problems gripping this society. Crime is the most obvious example of entitlement where thieves believe they have a right to the fruits of your labour.
But they are not alone. Let's look at education: Entitlement on the part of teachers allow them to push their salaries to more than 90% of our education budgets. This is not linked to performance or delivery but simply because they can flex their collective bargaining muscles and do so. So they get their money and work only 30 hours per week, and we pay in terms of larger classes and lower standards.
Let's look at policing: We have hundreds of thousands of educated people out of jobs, but are not in a position to insist that every policeman be computer literate and have a driver's licence — let alone have a degree — because that would be changing their conditions of employment and adversely affecting their careers. The fact that they cannot fill out forms doesn't matter.
Health care: we have ambulance drivers who refuse to answer calls after 6pm because they knock off at 7. We have nurses who will ignore buzzers from patients in public hospitals because they are entitled to their tea breaks.
Politicians: Provincial parliaments are paid simply to vote how to spend money allocated by central government. Local authorities by the dozen insist upon parity of pay irrespective of how affluent their ratepayers may be.
Back to rugby: The Stormers suddenly decided that their paycheques were more important than going out to win the semi-finals. They were entitled to more money because that's what they would have got had they been playing an away Currie Cup final and the Super 12 is much bigger than the Currie Cup. In so doing, they plummeted from the ranks of heroes to mercenaries, as did Bafana Bafana a few years ago. Instant karma zapped them.
What's worse is the message that has been sent to the people of Cape Town. It's not your support, your adulation or your respect that matters. It's not the building of a a new unity in Cape Town around good clean exciting rugby. It's just the money. They're entitled to it.
This, South Africa, is our biggest threat. Look for it. Learn to recognise it. Fight it.