I can be forgiven for thinking we’re living in a post-apocalyptic South Africa.
The country’s main regions are under water. We’re without power for at least 12 hours a day in many areas. And our governing party is in disarray.
On Sunday, downpours hit the Cape, leading to horrendous flooding in Paarl and many areas of the Cape Flats yesterday. A close friend and colleague’s father had to be evacuated from the hospital he was rushed to yesterday because the roof caved in under the weight of the water. De Doorns is a disaster zone. The country’s most vulnerable - the housing insecure, the millions of people living in makeshift structures, or in crumbling government housing infrastructure - are now at massive risk of the disease that so often accompanies standing water.
Limping Durban has been absolutely hammered by torrential downpours, and the failing eThekwini Municipality is a ticking time bomb as it spirals towards ruin. Literal shit is flowing into the sea, making the beaches unswimmable. Raw sewage is seeping into some of the country’s most prestigious golf courses. Refuse is piling up. And one of my team leaders has been without electricity for 37 hours and counting.
The City of Joburg has been begging Eskom to give it a break from load shedding so it can carry out much needed maintenance on its rotting infrastructure. Not too long ago, areas of Joburg had their water cut off because Rand Water just couldn’t cope. Now, the streets and highways have been turned to rivers. One of my team leaders can barely work because his electricity supply is so erratic.
We are falling apart here, Satafrika.
In a few days the governing ANC, that festering, ageing group of cronies clinging desperately to their networks of patronage and gravy-train meal tickets, gathers at Nasrec to elect new leadership. Well, not “new” per se. Just a different bunch of old people. Politics is a dirty game, and its players are just as filthy. It really is a case of the devil you know.
Why can’t President Cyril Ramaphosa just be impeached, I’ve heard some people ask?
Well, cupcake, it doesn’t work that way. The ANC has the majority in Parliament, and each MP would toe the party line and vote against impeachment. Why? Because there’s a Constitutional roadmap in place for what happens if the president is removed. Deputy President DD Mabuza would take over the governance of the country, and if he is incapable of doing so, the presidency of the country would fall upon Speaker of Parliament Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. Meaning the ANC does not directly control the outcome of Ramaphosa vacating his post.
But if The Buffalo is recalled, the ANC can control what happens. Remember, the president of the country serves at the pleasure of his party, not the other way around. Country comes second to the party.
So we wait and see what the Integrity Commission has to say about the recent Phala Phala Farmgate scandal, another presidential candidate Zweli Mkhize’s Digital Vibes scandal, and how this behaviour is interpreted under the party’s step-aside rule, when the ANC’s 55th National Elective Conference kicks off later this week.
In the meantime, here we are, South Africans under the kosh, at the mercy of sky-rocketing living costs, in the dark and under water, without clear and inspirational leadership. In the dwang.
Government has left us in the lurch, and it’s hard to see light at the end of the tunnel.
But light there is. You can’t keep Satafrika down. Watch us rise again.
IOL