In October I attended a workshop where a black African woman, who holds a senior position in a national parastatal, remarked that things are worse now in South Africa than during apartheid.

She pointed out that education standards have dropped, that the democratic government has built worse houses than the apartheid government and that conditions in public health institutions have gotten completely out of hand.

I was completely shocked because this is the kind of language that we, as race-conscious South Africans, normally expect from white people. But her comments made me realise that our democracy is growing up when people are prepared to make political critiques and comments based on objective conditions and not based on race.

A few years ago, this same woman would probably not have been comfortable to raise her concerns about what is happening in our society today, even in a small workshop. She would have felt that she was betraying the entire black nation by openly criticising our democratic government, which effectively means criticising the ANC which enjoys almost two thirds support among the electorate.

This is something that many black people grappled with – and some still grapple with – during the first few terms of ANC government. When do you criticise? When is your criticism considered to be constructive? When is criticism seen as destructive or, God forbid, counter-revolutionary?

Surely, by pointing out the mistakes of government, we can help government to correct these shortcomings? Surely, if one is patriotic, one is compelled to point out when government is not acting in the interests of all its people. Patriotism is after all, and according to a former American president, loyalty to a country but not necessarily to the government of the day.

My daughter asked me the other day, if I became President (which will of course not happen in South Africa, but that’s the subject of another column), what would be my first actions?

This was an interesting question, I thought. I said that I would call together a major conference of civil society and government, and try to include most forces in society, and ask them to help me formulate my priorities. I would say, yes I know that I have been elected on a party political platform but as President, I need to know that I represent all of you and as such I need your input into my priorities.

As we approach the President’s State of the Nation address and the Budget speech by the Finance Minister, we would hope that the President and the Finance Minister will be guided by the needs and priorities of all South Africans and not just members or supporters of the ANC.

As our country prepares to celebrate the biggest sports event in the world this year, we need to set aside petty political differences and seriously deal with the problems in our society. We need to change the minds of people who believe that things are worse now than under apartheid.

And that can only happen by showing those people that, among others, our education standards are not dropping, that we are prepared to review the quality of houses we provide for the poorest of the poor and that our public health services are improving. But then, maybe I’m naive to believe that this is possible.

Ryland Fisher, a former Editor of the Cape Times, is a communications and diversity consultant and Executive Chairperson of the Cape Town Festival.