'Initially, the family meetings brought a feeling that we were all in this together and the president, along with his health minister, Zweli Mkhize, certainly had our support in attempts to save lives. But even at that moment when the lives of quite possibly millions of South Africans were at stake, corruption reared its ugly head once more in the very necessary spend that had to be unlocked to fight the pandemic.' (GCIS)
It says a lot that all of South Africa’s chapter nine institutions established to guard our democracy, such as the public protector and the auditor general, have teamed up to monitor the spend in Kwazulu-Natal in the wake of the floods that has caused billions of rands worth of damage in our most troubled of provinces over the past few months, and led to at least 448 deaths.
It is telling that President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the treasury would provide R1-billion for flood relief through the Solidarity Fund, clearly suggesting no trust in the government departments to do so.
It speaks volumes of distrust in the state and its ability to do the most basic of its functions, such as protect the most vulnerable among us. The decades of tales of corruption, maladministration and mismanagement of some of our key strategic assets such as Eskom, which has warned of 101 days of load-shedding, has brought us to a place where we simply cannot trust the state’s capacity to work.
When South Africa, along with everyone else in the world, went into the “great lockdown” when Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, each and every one of us had no other recourse but to put faith in the state.
Initially, the “family meetings” brought a feeling that we were all in this together and the president, along with his health minister, Zweli Mkhize, certainly had our support in attempts to save lives. But even at that moment when the lives of quite possibly millions of South Africans were at stake, corruption reared its ugly head once more in the very necessary spend that had to be unlocked to fight the pandemic.
Mkhize’s name, who at that point seemed on a golden path towards a more senior role in his party and state, was himself embroiled in the corruption scandals that would unfold in the pandemic’s wake.
It was an opportunity lost by the administration of Ramaphosa, which was supposed to be more accountable than that of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, to reset relations between the state, business, civil society and the people.
Does it come as any surprise then that Kwazulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala would abuse his powers to ensure that a tanker of water would be diverted to his house amid the desperation of those queuing in his neighbourhood for water?
We have to agree with one of the Financial Mail’s former editors that it was tantamount to “a whole premier looting water.”
Zikalala’s place in the KwaZulu-Natal leadership of the ANC is not cast in stone. He is a pragmatist, having scuttled from the Zuma camp while Zuma was president and now cosies up to the Ramaphosa camp. A man who bends so easily to the prevailing winds could — and perhaps should — be viewed as difficult to trust.
South Africans are in a desperate way. Without any trust in the state and its ability to fend for the most vulnerable, we watch our leaders rendered more and more impotent and uncaring in the face of all our crises, including seemingly insurmountable infrastructure maintenance backlogs, which exacerbated the effects of the heavy rains and flooding.
Some may argue that privatisation is the only answer in the face of a dysfunctional and corrupt state but the “profit motive” alone would serve to only further put the boot on the neck of our more vulnerable. Even the middle class feel this effect, with the price of air tickets providing an example when private sector players drove up prices without strong competition from SAA.
The more the state fails in its duties — the most basic of them — the more we will fall into the clutches of the private sector and ultimately its profit motive.
Ramaphosa has promised to deliver on May 21 a social compact that will serve as a marker of new relations between the state, business, labour and society as a whole to work together towards our shared goals. We should be honest; it won’t work because of the trust deficit that the people have with the state and virtually all the players in our political theatre. South Africa deserves better.