How do they sleep at night? Lack of collective guilt over systemic wrongs leads to moral, structural fallout
Daily Maverick | 29.03.2026 19:09
South Africans have lost their sense of shame, said former finance minister Trevor Manuel during his keynote address in 2017 at the 7th Annual Conference of The Ethics Institute. He explained that South Africans, and politicians in particular, have lost their ability to feel guilty about having done bad things. It is universal that people have an innate sense of shame and experience guilt or remorse after committing wrongdoing, and perhaps do not sleep quite soundly at night. A decade later, the question arises: can something be done to disturb their conscienceless sleep?
