Bromwell Street resident Jienen Fleurs addresses protesters at The Old Biscuit Mill on Saturday morning.
NEWS ANALYSIS
Three service delivery crises this week highlighted the real work of governance that we miss when we’re preoccupied with the machinations of the major political parties.
This is not to say these aren’t important but in all the debate about state capture, Nkandla and so on, we’ve forgotten that the basic constitutional purpose of all spheres of government is to “secure the wellbeing of the people of the republic”.
The health ombud’s report on the deaths of mentally ill patients in Gauteng, news that the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) may not be able to provide social grants from April 1 and the Bromwell Street evictions in Cape Town illustrate that at all three spheres – provincial, national and local – our government is failing in its basic purpose.
On Wednesday, health ombud Malegapuru Makgobareleased his findings that 94 people died between March and December 2016, as a result of a Gauteng health department project intended to “deinstitutionalise” certain mentally ill patients by moving them from a licensed healthcare provider to several unlicensed community nongovernmental organisations.
Most of these patients were found to have died of starvation and dehydration. Provincial officials rushed the project, failing to ensure that patients received adequate care. It appears one of the main justifications for the move was to save money, with little regard for the patients’ rights.
Nearly 100 people lost their lives because of a decision by the state to spend R112 instead of R320 a day to take care of them.
At a national level, the Sassa chief executive told Parliament that beneficiaries’ current identification cards would expire on March 31. That means up to four million people risk not receiving their social grants after that, and millions more may be affected thereafter.
The reason for this situation is the agency’s failure to implement a 2014 Constitutional Court order to issue a new tender for the contract to handle social grant payments after the incumbent’s contract was found to be invalid. Through a combination of incompetence, administrative intransigence and sheer lack of urgency, Sassa now has less than two months to ensure that millions of South Africans don’t lose their primary source of income.
Government officials love to boast about South Africa’s social security programme, one of the largest in the developing world, as evidence of service delivery excellence. Yet the apparent nonchalance with which Sassa and the department of social development are treating this crisis belies any rhetoric about the government’s commitment to the people. The wellbeing of millions of South Africans is on the line and there seems to be no urgency to fix the situation.
The wellbeing of Capetonians was the subject of proceedings in the Western Cape high court on January 31. A company called the Woodstock Hub has evicted tenants of Bromwell Street in Woodstock to make way for a new development.
After the high court ordered the city to provide emergency alternative accommodation, residents were to be relocated to Wolwerivier near Melkbosstrand, about 25km north of the city centre. Residents are resisting the move because the new location is far from their places of employment and basic amenities like schools, clinics and transport infrastructure.
The history of such “temporary relocations” – as in the case of Blikkiesdorp, to which people were moved in 2006 – is that residents are forgotten about and permanent housing is not built. The Bromwell Street evictions may sound like “First World problems” compared to the first two examples, but it is still a case of the government failing to secure people’s wellbeing.
Apartheid spatial planning deprived most South Africans of stable family lives, access to amenities and employment opportunities. Instead of reversing this legacy, municipalities across the country are replicating it to increase revenue and protect the interests of the wealthy.
Comments allegedly made by Judge Leslie Weinkove, who was hearing the application, such as: “What’s the point of being near a school? What’s the point of them being near transport? Where are they going to go?” illustrate how deeply entrenched low expectations of the rights of the poor are.
These three stories of how millions of South Africa’s most vulnerable are treated by their government are a sobering reminder to all of us political analysts, academics and journalists that politics isn’t a game. It’s a route to government power, which is meant to be about securing the safety and wellbeing of all who live here.
As we head towards next week’s State of the Nation address, complete with rumours of a pending Cabinet reshuffle, may we remember that the purpose of our government is to “secure the wellbeing of the people of the republic”.
Sithembile Mbete is a lecturer in the University of Pretoria’s political science department