I love my country and I love my people - there is a lot of hate speech and and so much negativity and sometimes I become so sad and disillusioned - thank you for reminding me to keep positive and stay brave!!

This is the true South Africa. Not the haters on social media.

I'm teared up. I love my country. South Africa

A must read 😊

Wow wow Wow! Reminds us all that while there are people using colour differences to spread hate there are a lot of us who are prepared to spread love and refuse to simply throw our lot in with people who look the same as we do!

May many more South Africans walk this talk and let us remind ourselves daily "Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen"

I agree with all my heart! Just spent 3 weeks in Cape Town with an open mind to see how South Africans are choosing to improve their lives through empathy and imagination.

Thank you for sharing and thanks Jonathan Jansen too. Happy tears. I need to be reminded of the good news when it becomes murky in my mind.

This should be compulsory reading.

And with that Sir, you also hit the nail on the head, we think we can do it. No mention of God's Grace, no mention of the millions carrying this country everyday in prayer. We have and are still doing everything to push God aside. Repent SA repent, a humble submission to the Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is our only path to being healed.

You made me "tear up" just reading this. I have long been in wonder of our resilience. We have survived a veritable plethora of politicians whom we have had the misfortune of representing over the last 100 years or so, with only a teensy spark of brightness here and there. But we can also say: "What brightness! When we shine, we light up the night"

Forgot no 8. A small percentage (5%) that despite the risks get up early and go to work to try keep the tax base going because despite the constant sabotage of infrastructure and theft of our tax moneys need to provide for our families and in turn pay taxes to keep the mill turning.

Good on you South Africa from your friend in Australia. All the best countries are in the Southern Hemisphere 😆🌏❤️

Prof Jansen you are a remarkable man. Thank you for inspiring us yet again. If only more people were this positive instead of spreading gloom & doom far & wide.

Thats the people of SA - being the change - Yes I too am teared up! Onward and upward SA!

This is what South Africans are made of no matter what propaganda mongers might try and tell us: By Jonathan Jansen... last paragraph of this article... I’d like to add a seventh, our extraordinary compassion. I nearly ‘teared-up’ (to use Prof’s phrase) when I read the story of Xolani Luvuno, a leg amputee who ‘ran’ the 2018 Comrades. He grew up in the P.E township Motherwell, he dropped out in grade 8 and turned to a life of crime, gangsterism and drugs. After a five year stint in jail he was diagnosed with cancer and had his leg amputated above the knee. He ended up in Pretoria, begging at intersections and sleeping under a bridge at night, hooked on nyaope. In March 2016 Hein Venter, a ‘random’, but compassionate Pta businessman stopped and showed mercy, he gave Xolani some money and offered him a job. A keen runner himself Hein incentivised his staff to run, part health, part team building. R200 for a 10km team race to R 15 000 to run Comrades. Starting at midnight Xolani ran Comrades, he finished, no medal but R15000 from Hein. Xolani is not keeping the money, he is donating it all to the Ethembeni School for Disabled Children.(Are you teared up?) So, yes, we are in trouble as a country. But we have reasons to hope that things will get better. After all, we have been at the precipice often and we still have cause to dream, for all the reasons mentioned.

Thank you for this little ray of sunshine.

Prof...it is people like you who keep us present and sane! Reminding us timeously of what who we are. That way we won't jump off that precipice.

Mirrowing THE SOUL OF A COUNTRY, thank you! I agree, mother of a child born differently, not able to attend school and today, soon to turn 25 walks into fire stations around the country, loved by each firefighter who accepts them as one of their own from the first day he visited his first fire station and became hooked on the compassion, joy and acceptance shown by grown, experienced men and women who share his joy as he comes to visit the next time, in a heartfelt embraced: THIS IS OUR COUNTRY, OUR PEOPLE hold together by God, our Father, His Son our Savior and the Holy Spirit which guides us through every challenge, never to lose hope. Amen.

This is an amazing country. I could leave but I just can’t.

Partially agree, a hungry man is a dangerous man, aka protest, Unemployment etc, how patient will the marginalised be-How far off is an "African Spring", will a deceptive new dawn be their fate. Time will tell

Very good to read as a reminder that hopefully our children have a future in SA.

Yes always at the brink. However we are tenacious and resolute, never giving up and most importantly we laugh Robustly 🤣

Thank you for this. I believe we all need to look at this. Thank you Prof Jansen!

Awesome and true article #togetherwearestronger