CALL TO ACTION

1st February 2013

US President Barack Obama speaking during his second inauguration in Washington, DC, on Monday, January 21, 2013. A paragraph in his speech should arguably be required reading for South Africa’s political actors. It reads: “We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years and 40 years and 400 years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.”