A fascinating phenomenon often occurs aboard many fishing vessels around the world. Crab fishermen will not bother to put a lid on buckets filled with their crustacean catches due to the behaviour of crabs when they are trapped in a bucket: while any one crab can easily start to climb out, it will nonetheless be pulled back in by the others seemingly out of spite, ensuring the group's collective demise.

This seems completely illogical, even if only one crab manages to escape, surely that is a greater collective good than them all perishing at the hands of the local fish shop? It seems almost inconceivable that any thinking creature would willingly doom its fellow man to death simply out of jealousy, envy or spite. Well, unfortunately, South Africa is a prime testament to the fact that this is not the case. Crab mentality seems to be the prevailing sentiment of the land.

In most functioning countries, the success of any individual or group of people is celebrated as a collective advancement of the nation. That is how things are supposed to be after all: we are all supposed to strive to improve the conditions of our lives and to give a better future for our children. In South Africa however, the true success of an individual is not measured by one's capacity to add value to the economy, to people's lives, or even by your ability to uplift yourself through education and then working hard for an honest income. The true measure of success seemingly lies in the collecting struggle for arbitrary notions of equity and de-colonialism.

The guiding light of South Africa cannot be found in the three million tax-payers that account for 90% of the county's income tax revenue. Instead, you'll find it in the man who struggles the most in his day-to-day life and, most importantly, agrees with the prevailing cultural zeitgeist. Anyone who breaks this mould is undoubtedly an enemy of the continuous democratic revolution led by the ANC.

Enemies of the collective struggle must be dragged down and made to suffer as the lowest common denominator does. After all, the crab that pulls itself out of the bucket and towards true liberation and success is standing on the backs of its fellow crabs to do so.

This Crab Mentality is, unfortunately, found at every level of South African society. If a black person educates himself and realises the depths of the insanity of this system of collective demise, then he will find himself labelled as one of the so-called "kleva blacks". It is a sarcastic term used as a stick to beat any black person who steps out of line due to their education exploits. Perhaps one of the most pervasive examples of crab mentality is how the Western Cape is treated by the rest of South Africa.

The Western Cape has always strived to be a cut above the rest. It's not a sentiment of brazen arrogance, but rather it's one of ambition. The people of the Cape voted for the Democratic Alliance in 2009 because we strived to build a province better than the other eight, which are controlled by the ANC. As a result, it is in this province that you can find the highest Human Development Index score.

This difference is not due to the Cape simply having more money to spend on this development. Even Gauteng has a higher income per capita. Instead, this is because, unlike in other provinces, the Western Cape primarily invests in its people. This difference is the root of Western Cape Exceptionalism. This land is the only province of its kind, and its people are beginning to realise this.

The Western Cape calls for greater autonomy and self-determination because it recognises this exceptionalism, this ability and desire for the province to build a first-world future for its people. However, as is standard for South Africa, the crabs are ready to drag the province and its people down.

Any notion that the Cape is our home, and worth fighting for, will inevitably be dragged down into a broader conversation about all the ills of South African society. Any suggestions of harnessing the Western Cape’s exceptionalism to help resolve any of the province's many issues will be fiercely ridiculed. These criticisms are often ridiculous and riddled with unfounded accusations of racism, as is often the case for any ideas that fail to conform to the collectivism and unitarianism of the national government.

We may not control our police and combat the rampant criminality apparently because "don't you know that crime is everywhere. Why do you only care about people in Khayelitsha?" We can not focus on improving the economic conditions of the province because doing so would be to abandon the national struggle against poverty. The list goes on. The Western Cape may never look inward to resolve its many existential crises because doing so would neglect the collective national struggle to fix South Africa.

The Cape must, in fact, never be allowed to strive for something greater than just being one of the nine crumbling provinces in a declining country. The idea of one of the nine crabs successfully pulling itself out of the bucket and saving her people from the inevitable demise is both insulting and selfish. Insulting because it recognises the reality of the situation, and selfish because it focuses on oneself. Instead, we must sink our claws into each other and deliberate on how best to distribute the remaining scraps of bait. In the end, we die hungry and miserable, but equally so. This death spiral must end, and increasingly so, the voters of the Western Cape are calling for this to end.

These growing calls for self-determination and devolution of power back to the Western Cape are at the heart of Cape Exceptionalism. It is simply a recognition of reality. “Don’t underestimate the power of vision and direction. These are irresistible forces, able to transform what might appear to be unconquerable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities.” writes Dr Jordan Peterson.

This statement could not be any closer to the truth. The bucket is not an insurmountable obstacle, and the claws are not inescapable. We are a people with a collective vision of our future and a common understanding of where we want to take our province. To do so, we must take the final decision of how our home is governed out of Pretoria and into the voters of this most incredible land.

For many years, the Western Cape has been held back by the other provinces, forced to implement the disastrous policies formulated in Pretoria. I believe, as do many others in the Cape, that the time has come for this province to realise its ambition and take back control of its destiny. To reject this path towards failure and to fight for success. We must shake off our fellow crabs, climb out of the bucket, and jump back into where we belong: the freedom of the open ocean (both Atlantic and Indian). Yes, the ocean is big and sometimes scary, but it will be up to us as to how we navigate it.

So, don’t let the Crabs drag us down.

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