Let South Africa Be Our Country Again Poem by Gert Strydom

Let South Africa be our country again
and South Africans from all over the world
stream back,
to dream here like before,
to hope, to wish
of a place
not bordered of by burglar bars
where people can stay free
before God and man.

Let merit and respect be present
and people receive what they deserve
rather than expecting affirmative-action
and mercy from others
and the whole world
and like in the past
let us successfully do our own thing.

Let opportunities really exist
to be free in work,
living and association,
to study in your own language,
let us pull the teeth of the dogs
that rips others apart to rule,
of might that shatters the weak.

Let the animal inside us die
and we really become people
that does not burn each other,
crush and vituperate
and in groups jeering urge the killing on
and do not rob, but work
for the life that we have got.

Let we break the chains
of people ruling
with profit, might
and work people into the ground
and misuse others to gain prosperity.

I am the white Afrikaner that had to fight in war
and now are unemployed and hungry,
while I have a university degree.

I am the black man that without education
have to dig holes and man garbage trucks
and conclude my life in a shack.

I am the coloured that always stand between all groups
and do not know where I belong
and rather gather in gangs.

I am the South African that life
drives down the whole time
and have to pray all the time,
to know how to carry on.

l’Envoi
Still, I am the one that dream
of a country free from crime,
where everybody have equal opportunity,
where rape, corruption
and lawlessness ends
and where South Africa is our country again.