Schabir Shaik is a good example of a South African with ambition, with big ideas and with determination to climb the ladder, which includes name-dropping - and why not?

The new South Africa can be a place for small-minded under-achievers, frightened and spineless people, but also a place for those who want to soar with the eagles.

Africa and the world are waiting for those among us who have the guts and the ill to enrich the continent with their ideas, skills and contributions - not forgetting our neck of the woods.

Schabir Shaik is reaching out to enrich himself and others and to carve a name for himself.

Why drag him through the mud? Why persecute this man and his brothers and those who help him? Are we so blinded by vindictiveness or is it only now, after 1994, that we will see corruption, even when it is merely a case of a brother helping a brother?

Why don't we also focus on those who want to abuse our hospitality, our generosity, by flooding us with drugs, stealing our wealth and using our country as a launch-pad to commit crimes against humanity in an attempt to extinguish our flame of hope, joy and justice.

New South Africans are South Africans with a formidable past and whether Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, white, black or coloured , should have - and will have - a chance to play a meaningful role in the shaping of world ideals on peace, stability and progress.

With acknowledgements to Rooi Leslie Mongezi and the Cape Argus.