The best of 2022: how war, darkness and the Zondo report defined a difficult year
We had high hopes for 2022. We had just come out of covid-19. Things were starting to open up. It allowed us to finally spend time with our friends and family and return to some kind of normalcy after two years of wearing masks and being isolated.
But if we thought this would be an easier year, 2022 had other ideas. At the end of February, Russia invaded Ukraine, shocking not only the region but the world as the price of gasoline and diesel increased, resulting in a drastic increase in the cost of living. This was quite a shock to many who had lost their jobs and were just beginning to recover financially. The war continues, which means that we will probably continue to feel the economic impact until 2023.
Back home, the issue of racism came up again after a Stellenbosch student urinated on the belongings of a fellow beef. The university would go on to experience two more incidents over the course of the year.
The full extent of corruption in the country was also exposed as Chairman of the State Capture Inquiry and now Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has released his report after the end of the inquiry, which reveals an overwhelming case against the ANC. , and in particular against its former leader, Jacob Zuma. for being active participants in the expansive state capture project run by the Gupta family.
We were forced to deal with this pivotal moment in history in the dark as Eskom implemented what could be considered the worst load shedding year ever, as the country experienced Stage 6 load shedding in June, July, September and again in November and December. It’s unlikely we’ll get a breather any time soon, and many experts predict that load shedding will be with us for another two years.
And while the coalition governments stepped on treacherous ground after the 2021 elections to the disappointment of citizens, two court rulings, namely the Constitutional Court ruling to release the murderer of Chris Hani on parole and the Court ruling Court of Appeals that granted Zuma medical parole was illegal, saw increased attacks on the judiciary.
The year ended with Cyril Ramaphosa claiming victory in the ANC’s elective conference a week after his party’s MPs endorsed him and voted against adopting a Section 89 report on the Phala Phala scandal. Had it been the other way around, Ramaphosa would have faced an impeachment hearing.
Ramaphosa is unlikely to proceed smoothly while we await the outcome of various other inquiries into the matter.
To put into context what a journey this year has been, we’ve compiled six major issues of Friday Briefing, so you can look back and make sense of 2022.
Friday Briefing takes a break and will return on January 13.
All the best for the new year. May 2023 be less bumpy.
A cordial greeting,
Vanessa Banton, Opinion Editor
