Multipurpose: McDonald’s and MiDesk donated branded school desks to St Paul’s Primary School (above) in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, late last month. More desks were given to a school in North West. Photo: X
The McDonald’s-branded desk saga holds the outlines of the archetypal South African tragedy: good intentions hobbled by self-interest and dragged to the depths of public vitriol.
To be clear, the execution of the idea was unequivocally bad. Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube and her department’s comfortable posture on the desks — literal and metaphorical — betrays an ignorance of the issues of plastering vulgar fast food branding on children’s learning materials.
South Africa has severe problems with non-communicable diseases, accounting for 51% of deaths in 2019, according to the World Health Organisation. Malnutrition rates have similarly plagued the population for decades. State-endorsed consumption of calorie-intense, nutritionally low food is irresponsible in that context. (That’s before considering the ethical arguments of shoving branding into a neighbourhood where many residents support boycotts of McDonald’s.)
But, for as obvious a blunder as it was, we cannot ignore the rebuttal either. These children, and thousands of others across the country, need desks (and much other equipment). Our elitist whinging does not change the fact that children now have a surface to write on — which they didn’t yesterday.
As long as the government fails to provide adequate services across the breadth of the nation, we always have to confront that response.
Indeed, we should celebrate contributions from the private sector to fulfill a need. But that can’t be an open invitation to unrestrained capitalism.
It would be a mistake to assume altruism from corporations. Their actions, by definition, are driven by profit and serve the interests of owners and board members. We cannot expect them to donate a desk without something in return.
In the domain of public services, it is the duty of our officials to arbitrate that quid pro quo. Admittedly, that line is not always as clear as it is in this case. As a society we must become comfortable with having these conversations and become better at discerning responsible philanthropy.
And herein lies the tragedy. In these pages we have written extensively about the need for everyone in the public and private sector to stop thinking about practical governance as someone else’s problem. In theory, this saga began with that mentality in action. In practice, we saw the same tone-deaf self-motivated moves we have become accustomed to.
All of South Africa wants business to give back to people in need and invest in their success. There just has to be a way to do that without asking a child to stare at golden arches all day.