Constitutiona Rights - wrong or right?

My country was the last to obtain freedom or democracy so to speak in Africa. The euphoria was very intoxicating and elating at the best. But reality set in, and people didn't know how to really deal with it.

These words, I find very accurate about what I am about to write; " The reason people find it hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be." - marcel pagnol.

We had apartheid rule in South Africa for forty or so years, and it was really difficult, especially for the people who lived all their lives right through it. Blacks had no rights, we were excluded from participating in many things, we were practically sidelined, we had no voice in terms of how our country was run.

Very few blacks had the priviledge of having financial benefits from their jobs, people changed jobs like restaurants and there were no worries in terms of employers. One worked in a particular factory and left on Friday after payday and started work on another on Monday, it was no problem, the bosses would just hire another, there were no monetary matters involved, sorting out of untaken leave pay and pension funds, nada, one simply walked out. I can count many insidents that most often blinded people to the truth of their exploitation, situations that provided for them hand to mouth. In their present opinion, it was better then, because no one was out of a job unless they chose so. Little did they know, most knew, but blinded themselves to the reality of the situation.

Today the country is besieged by worker's strikes, every other worker in South Africa has a right to strike, wether it's morality right or wrong, it doesn't matter. What matters is what they want, as to who suffers it's immaterial. At some stage patience died in hospitals due Medical staff on strike, now recently it was the Magistrates; now it's the teachers, whose actions contribute to scholars being disturbed from their studies, our children in schools become uncertain about what action are the teachers going to take next and that causes despondency in them.

There are the Unionists, they utter inciting words to their affiliates and once there is chaos and they are called to accountability, they are quick to say it's not their members who are responsible for vandalism, but criminal elements. If a senior official utters such words as "during apartheid we made this country ungovernable and we will make it ungovernable again." Are the situations the same, do they warrant the same treatment, is everyone benefiting from their making the country ungovernable as previously? NO, these strikes are about wage increases, do they represent everybody? NO again. If one chooses to exersice their constitutional right and go to work, thinking of their families needs, he is victimised and could possibly lose their lives and yet people speak of their rights. Who has them and who doesn't?