What now?

There’s nothing like an event such as the World Cup to rip open a country’s potential, breathe some life into it and see visible results. The tournament has come and gone. That could just be the post-World Cup depression. I attribute this, in part, to how well it went. It was almost flawless, save for a few hundred crimes, some peeved fans who couldn’t attend that now infamous Durban game and of course the never-ending ticket scam sagas. I shrugged off my cynicism for a change, replacing it with, shall we call it, momentary patriotism (which, in my defence, never extended to buying rearview window socks) and I backed South Africa’s ability to actually pull off the event. And in a rare show of unity and competence, the country did exactly that, against many odds. Well done, pat on the back, whoo hoo. But what it also proved was that with enough pressure, attention and, of course money, the powers-that-be are able to set egos aside, stop bickering, relegate party-politics and shift into gear to do something. How could they not? The world was expecting failure.
So why can’t the government keep this up with day-to-day service delivery? They’ve built a host of a multi-billion rand white elephant (you may know them as stadiums) and got public transport, such as Cape Town’s IRT system on the right track (although it could become an exercise in futility). Impressive indeed. But now I’m referring to working taps, flushing, fully-enclosed toilets, a few more homes and maybe even a school here- -and-there, can they fuel up delivery in these crucial areas? Sure, the spin doctors and their wizards-of-words will explain there are such programmes, initiatives, projects (or whatever the latest government catchphrase is of the moment) in place. So maybe the likes of the N2 gateway project is providing homes or the extended public works programme is seeing things like new roads being laid (where? I’m not to sure). But they’ve only been able to churn up a trickle of promised end-products over a number of years. And they’ve been plagued by needless controversies. Why can’t this delivery-on-steroids be transplanted into government’s chest, a functioning, heart, with peoples’ needs prioritized and not those of MPs and their lust for mansions, luxury cars, World Cup tickets and designer attire? I have some answers to this, but can’t find it in myself to verbalise or write them in a civil, non-violent way. Maybe we should just brace ourselves for the same lame government spin, excuses and futile debates on the snail-pace service delivery which all too many South Africans have become accustomed to from those in charge.