At last we can write the date as 2015! If you are anything like me, you have been struggling not to write 2015 for the past few weeks already. It seems life is so rushed that we often live in the future, thinking of the next thing that needs to be done.
Hopefully, after this season of rest, most of us will feel ready to begin a new year. But I know there are some who find another year a daunting prospect indeed. As we celebrate New Year’s Day, let us consciously reach out to those who lost a loved one in 2014, to those entering 2015 without work and to those facing illness, financial distress and fear for what the future holds.
Let’s encourage one another, and offer practical help wherever we can, so that every South African can enter 2015 with a sense of hope. There are certainly challenges ahead for our country, not least in the political sphere. But there is also hope, because wherever people of goodwill reside, change is possible.
I urge you to enter 2015 with a commitment to becoming more involved. Get involved in community work. Sign up to help an NGO. Join a political party.
Whatever you choose to do, do it knowing that you can make a difference.
May 2015 be a year of activism for social justice, national unity and Ubuntu. On behalf of my family and the Inkatha Freedom Party, I wish you a magnificent year ahead. Happy New Year.
IFP Media, Parliament
