Does the western world really care about us? Just a thought!

Tony Cimato, Chairman and CEO of the Efficient Engineering Group of Companies, posted this question on the LinkedIn social media platform recently. The responses from company owners and the like are posted below.

“We as South Africans are all surprised that the western world was quick to lock us out of their borders because of the Omicron variant, even though there is evidence that this was in Europe weeks before our scientists discovered this variant.”

“I wonder how long our government and our citizens will take to realise that nobody cares about us! We have to do things for ourselves! The rest of the world carries on moving and we are here waiting for handouts that ultimately get stolen via our well-publicised corruption networks.”

“Take for example all the billions that were promised to our government for infrastructure development, nothing has filtered through as projects. What happened to these pledges. Have they come through? Has the cash already disappeared?”

‘If we don’t start taking accountability for our shortfalls, if we don’t start punishing those responsible for our pathetic situation we find ourselves in, how are we ever going to gain the respect of the other countries around the globe?’

“In the last presidential address, our president was quite vocal on the disappointment of our exclusion from the world in terms of access, what has happened since…. Nothing! Nobody cares, we have to do it for ourselves! The sooner we realise, the better! As with what I started, just a thought!”

These are some of the responses:
“Tony your 100% right!! We need to get involved and stop complaining about everything!!!!! Start working!! We had a steel strike a month ago and everybody was mounting and complaining and Friday all the steel companies are closing up again till the 10th of January!! We need to start taking responsibility and start working again?? Covid made SA lazy??”

“No, Covid did not make SA lazy. I called a call centre the other day, and had to wait for more than 35 minutes before being cut off. The music played and the message played “due to Covid we have less staff and there will be delays.” The company was FNB. The thought popped into my head, what was the excuse before Covid? It has not changed. It all starts with the leadership of the country. Stop stealing and start investing in uplifting communities. Why do the poor still live in shacks, and have pit toilets after 27 years? It’s a disgrace!”

“100% Let’s get of our bums and look after ourselves. Nobody else will help us, let alone countries abroad nor our so-called government. South African private companies should start supporting each other. There is nothing wrong with a bit of competition, but together we can do far more.”

“Absolutely! There is also a project SMILE that was launched last month. It should be utilised more effectively. Google it.”

“Excellent piece of truthful thoughts put into writing. The ruling party will not change their ways. Why? Everyone wants to be a king. In order to have changed from a freedom movement to a political sound party, you should have created better schooled young leadership to take the party forward in a ever evolving world and bring them through the various government departments in order to prove capabilities to end up in parliament and then start to lead portfolio committee’s in order to understand functionality of a state. You will see that the same old men and women are still there. And yes Tony, there is no leadership, accountability and decisiveness. They failed us.”

“How do we save our industry? You form part of the food chain, know your place, products, capabilities and weaknesses. Don’t over sell yourself. Don’t promise ridiculous delivery times. Just take some of the work to get capacity and deliver on time. Not all the work and place your management and clients under pressure to perform miracles. Educate the client to give us a competitive advantage and can everyone please start quoting the correct price per job. Everyone has to make a profit to survive the business. You cannot make a profit and try and steal mine also.”

“Totally with you and I would supplement your discussion with RESPONSIVENESS and RESPECT. We seem to lack the RES factor, I find that, unless it’s part of the agenda (incl. the hidden ones), people fail to respond, and that shows disrespect. And I am not talking here about the bombardment of annoying queries, but even those deserve a response to stop.”

“100% Agree!!!”

“Tony, you are 200% right.”

“No truer word has been said …….. Agree 100%!”

“Looting is currently very fashionable among so called “leaders”. I never like to underestimate the West’s political involvement and/or motivation. It remains up to us as a people to BE the change and stand together. Forget this government.”

“A good piece of thought, South Africa have very good engineering and manufacturing capabilities of world standard. If the government can invest in those workshops/facilities/engineering firms can eradicate unemployment. I have heart seeing lot of these facilities with heavy machinery empty
some turn into churches.”

“Taxes?”

“Do you really think that our government cares about us citizens ??????”

“Yes and we grew up with the old generations by learning by them but not that we are older the new generation doesn’t want to learn by us now the skills are going extinct and the young generation doesn’t know our skills.”

“Thank you Tony, you are on the spot!!!”

“Very true Tony. I would not want to see what will happen if the rest of the world enforce sanctions on South Africa now. During previous sanctions South Africa thrived, now would be a different situation.”

“Well said Tony. A potentially great country without corruption and accountability.”

“Well said Tony!”

“Amen!”