Do you trust Government? I would rephrase the question by asking: Do you trust our Government? But I just can't find it in myself. Government no longer seems like it's 'ours'; it doesn't appear as if this Government is 'For the people, by the people' anymore. To borrow one of the ANC's favourite words when describing and criticising tendencies, actions and beliefs which counter its own: Government seems alien to us, the electorate, the taxpayers, the citizens.
With each month that goes by under President Jacob Zuma's governance, the State drifts further away from us (and reality) and mistrust grows. A government task team's investigation into the Nkandla debacle signals yet another of these moments where the powers-that-be vacillate to the other end of reality, where absurdity thrives under deceit and incompetence. For me personally, it was a watershed moment of sorts where I witnessed Government continue to defend a glaring, shameless display of arrogance on the part of a president who seems comfortable in showing off his power, influence and wealth amid uncomfortable poverty. His blinkered approach to the assembly line of scandals resembles an abuse of power. Cynicism dictated to me that there was simply very little of transparent substance to accept from a government-sanctioned probe into whether our tax rands are being misspent, this time on ensuring Zuma and his familly are as comfortable in their daily lives as possible; all at the expense of an entire country. Some opposition parties have labelled the probe's findings as a 'whitewash'. I choose to call it an attack on our intelligence and trust.
There's a photo I see often of the now infamous Nkandla compound (I'm sorry I simply can't call it a 'residence' without being attacked by nausea). It's a panoramic shot of Zuma's sprawling estate, in all its vainglory. Nestled in the foreground of the photo, virtually in the shadow of the compound, is a mud hut, a woman sitting outside the dwelling doing what seems like washing. The hut can't be more than a few square metres in size, it's decrepit facade stuns me when compared to how the president thinks he is allowed and entitled to live just a few kilometers from the rank-and-file of the country's poor. It speaks the proverbial 'a thousand words'. While Zuma and his family visibly benefit from the spoils of his presidency and influence, the multitude of South African citizens must accept the grim realities that plague the country. For the middle-class, we must shut up (that's the message being sent by Zuma's spin doctors) and deal with it. Accept is all we can do because whinging about Government's shortcomings (especially if you are a White person) is dismissed by the ANC state as unjustified; as for criticising Government, well, we all know what happens if you dare to speak out against the the Zuma administration. However, my acceptance comes with immense amounts of anger and cynicism. I will accept this is how Zuma rules. I accept he probably feels nothing for those who vote him and his party into power. I also accept I have lost complete trust in him and the state.
I'd like to travel to Nkandla and meet the woman in the photo. My question to her would be very simple: Do you (still) trust Msholozi? As I ask the question, my eyes would survey her reality, one characterised by desperate penury. My eyes would then glare through one of her windows at the growing compound where Zuma and his family will languish. For now, I can only guess her answer(s). Perhaps like the millions who share her fate she too is waiting for those election promises to come to fruition. Maybe she's one of those eternal optimists or die-hard 'Nkandlists' who will continue to suffer from a condition I call 'Zanu-PF-isis (a key symptom includes the inability to be able to vote for any other political party other than the one which has consistently lied and cheated it's electorate decade after decade). Like Robert Mugabe, Zuma seems detached from reality. Like Mugabe, Zuma seem oblivious to how compromised and tarnished he has become. Zuma's Nkandla neighbour could, on the other hand, be seething, like many of us are. She could launch into a bilious tirade of how she feels cheated by the president's conspicuous consumption. I can only hope this is her response, if I'm to retain a sembelance of faith in my fellow South African.
When levels of trust sink to dangerous lows, we know what happens. Zamdela happens. At least two service delivery protests a day happen. Credit down gradings happen. Marikana happens.
Many senior government officials have been transformed into nothing more than sycophants who fluff, bluff, pad, skirt, dodge and dive through one Zuma scandal after another, much like kamikaze pilots. Their compliance, their blind loyalty and willingness to be party to the Nkandla saga (and other controversies) only further serves to erode public trust in Government.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Backward, ho!
If you come across a MyCiti bus stop sign anywhere in the Woodstock, Salt River or Walmer Estate area, don't bother assembling under it. You'll be waiting a long time for a bus to arrive! There should be MyCiti buses operating in these neighbourhoods. But the closest I'll get to seeing a top class bus service in Woodstock (where I live) is on the City of Cape Town's web site. As we've come to expect, where efforts are made to improve public transport in this country, the mini-bus taxi industry seems to have the last say. In the case of the expansion of MyCiti services, an existing bus company, Golden Arrow, is also in a huff. And where there's a huff, there's also a puff of asininity. Golden Arrow and taxi groups fear the competition MyCiti will bring with it.
As a resident of Woodstock I've long wished for added public transport in the area so I can get out of my car, save some fuel and maybe even do the planet some good. There is a desperate need for added public transport in Woodstock and neighbouring suburbs. Taxis rule the roads in these areas. I reluctantly accept they do offer a much-needed service (albeit amid a flagrant disregard for their commuters' safety and the laws of the road.) Golden Arrow too has a role in getting people to their destinations. For decades the company has been, as it's slogan says, 'The bus for us.' But it's monopoly is in danger and as we know, when confronted with competition and change this country, the well- rehearsed reflex is to kick, scream and hold your breath until you get your way. Hey, the taxi industry is an expert in this regard. Ask the City of Johannesburg what happened when it started introducing Rea Vaya buses on its roads.
It will probably remain a wish and nothing more to have a quality bus service in my neighbourhood and the opportunity to choose the means of public transport I prefer. 'Get over it, you whinging twit' I hear you saying, 'Just use taxis or Golden Arrow buses like the rest.' A perfectly acceptable smack down response to my malaise... or is it?
Why are so many of us scared of competition? Why is it when attempts to introduce progress are made, knickers fly into knots? Surely in the case of Cape Town's public transport landscape, there is space for more bus services, like MyCiti? the outcry over the services expansion can't surely be just over money.
Of course the cliched argument is made that the City of Cape Town's doesn't have the required operating licences to expand Myciti to Woodstock et al. Cue the rolling of the eyes and gag reflex. Behind the cliche is a myopic, avaricious agenda, especially where the taxi industry is concerned. It's a short-sighted, backward, infantile reflex, which, if left unchecked as it is, will only keep us in the dark ages of coffin-taxis and monopolistic bus companies. The public is basically being denied the chance to choose how it wants to get from A to B.
For the time being I'll have to settle with daydreaming about a time when I can choose to leave my car parked; when I can choose the bus service I want to use based on tried and tested criteria: reliability, safety and economy. I fear I must continue to fantasise about a reliable public transport service in my suburb, free of the trappings of anti-competitiveness and childish justifications, as backwardness is allowed to thrive.
As a resident of Woodstock I've long wished for added public transport in the area so I can get out of my car, save some fuel and maybe even do the planet some good. There is a desperate need for added public transport in Woodstock and neighbouring suburbs. Taxis rule the roads in these areas. I reluctantly accept they do offer a much-needed service (albeit amid a flagrant disregard for their commuters' safety and the laws of the road.) Golden Arrow too has a role in getting people to their destinations. For decades the company has been, as it's slogan says, 'The bus for us.' But it's monopoly is in danger and as we know, when confronted with competition and change this country, the well- rehearsed reflex is to kick, scream and hold your breath until you get your way. Hey, the taxi industry is an expert in this regard. Ask the City of Johannesburg what happened when it started introducing Rea Vaya buses on its roads.
It will probably remain a wish and nothing more to have a quality bus service in my neighbourhood and the opportunity to choose the means of public transport I prefer. 'Get over it, you whinging twit' I hear you saying, 'Just use taxis or Golden Arrow buses like the rest.' A perfectly acceptable smack down response to my malaise... or is it?
Why are so many of us scared of competition? Why is it when attempts to introduce progress are made, knickers fly into knots? Surely in the case of Cape Town's public transport landscape, there is space for more bus services, like MyCiti? the outcry over the services expansion can't surely be just over money.
Of course the cliched argument is made that the City of Cape Town's doesn't have the required operating licences to expand Myciti to Woodstock et al. Cue the rolling of the eyes and gag reflex. Behind the cliche is a myopic, avaricious agenda, especially where the taxi industry is concerned. It's a short-sighted, backward, infantile reflex, which, if left unchecked as it is, will only keep us in the dark ages of coffin-taxis and monopolistic bus companies. The public is basically being denied the chance to choose how it wants to get from A to B.
For the time being I'll have to settle with daydreaming about a time when I can choose to leave my car parked; when I can choose the bus service I want to use based on tried and tested criteria: reliability, safety and economy. I fear I must continue to fantasise about a reliable public transport service in my suburb, free of the trappings of anti-competitiveness and childish justifications, as backwardness is allowed to thrive.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
To Resolve or not to Resolve
By now (the 2nd of January) those misguided enough (about 51 million of us) to have entered into those annoying annual contracts, where we resolve to better ourselves come a new year, have more than likely already deviated from these grandiose 'plans of action'. The temptation of our old habits prove to be too strong, whereour self-discipline is upstaged and exposed as paper-thin. I too made resolutions (mentally, so as to not to set myself up for public derision upon failure). At 12:59pm on the 31st of December I slurred through my lofty list of new year's resolutions (okay, maybe not a list, but I made a mental tally of about 4 resolutions. I can now only remember 2). Amid an onslaught pf hugging, kissing, back-slapping and handshaking I recall committing myself to not being so cynical. With a booze-induced goofball smile on my mug I declared, quietly to myself, that I will try to steel myself against the attack of cynicism brought on by life's many imperfections. My smile turned to a hawkish fortitude where my inner workings momentarily kicked into gear in concert with this near impossible resolution. I was hellbent on seeing the good in things (or at the very least the nice-ish aspects of our existence). You know, smell the flowers, randomly greet strangers in the street, don't snarl at babies - pedestrian changes in my attitude towards life. My second resolution: To live a healthier lifestyle. ( I hear you laughing).
With my new found positive state of mind, I again declared internally to work on building a six pack, to take up jogging and to eat more greens. Note: This purposeful stance was arrived at with a beer lodged in my one hand, a glass of cheap sparkling wine in the other, my well fed boep peaking out from under my shirt. Oh, irony who impudent strumpet! My healthier lifestyle could wait until the sun rises. That ball of fire and hydrogen rose far too soon; not just for me, but for the millions who also resolved, in a haze of over-indulgence, to become awesome, amazing, richer and thinner in 2013. By the evening of New Years day, a bottle of red wine stood empty on my kitchen table, my running shoes remained hidden in the wardrobe (where they've been more months) and Steers burgers beckoned. With this fantastic failure to launch, I forced the guilty to one side and consoled myself with a chorus of pop psychology 'mantras': 'You're only human, tomorrow is another day. Just try harder.' The nausea swirled into my soul. I am indeed only human, as are my fellow humans, among the elite of the ANC and government. My guilt searched for twisted logic to justify my failed resolutions. Instead my lingering cynicism dragged my substance-addled mind back to familiar territory. I focused my disappointment on, well, other disappointing things (disappointment, like misery, loves company) in a sad attempt to lift my mood. And so my mind limped onto thoughts of doom and gloom: the ANC.
Did the too resolve to better this year this year? I think so. Most party members may've still been drunk from the 'successes' of the Mangaung elective conference as the end of the year arrived. Many probably waddle-danced there way into a new year, ecstatic and elated at Jacob Zuma's victory. With their spirits high, many comrades may've settled on improving themselves in 2013. Could some have resolved to stop stealing from tax payers? Many may just have decided to actually get off their well lined backsides anf to start doining something that doesn't involved enriching themselves.
The policy resolutions from the conference could in many ways be interpreted as New Year resolutions of sorts, declarations of intent, where the ruling party wants to take the country, not just in 2013, but beyond that. Surely Msholozi, fresh from his re-election, made his own personal leadership resolutions. Denied the ability to read minds, I can only broadly speculate what these are.
On marriage, the President may just have decided firmly over a glass of his favourite tipple to whoo another bride with promises of easy business connections, an allowance compliments of tax payers and even her own spot in the sunshine that is the Nkandla compound/home/residence/base/kraal/estate. Would his resolutions include anything in the way of bettering his body and mind? Perhaps he wants to sharpen his intellect by actually reading something of substance. He could even keep his reading preferences close to home. There are books abound based on former comrades. Frank Chikane penned a book in 2012. There's one on the rise and fall of Jackie Selebi Zuma could thumb through for a laugh and a scowl. Hell, maybe he dares to pick up a copy of Zuma Exposed. As my high school English teacher would say, "A book, no matter its content, helps the mind, no matter it's content.' If Zuma could maybe pick up even a newspaper (not the New Age) in 2013 he could perhaps enter the reality the rest of the country endures daily. In 2012 when the country burned amid strikes, the Marikana tragedy, a declining economy; it seemed the president spent far too much time inside, dealing with party politics.
Will JZ resolve to develop a sense of humour this year? To me it seems to have llargely escaped him in 2012. The last half of the year was far from funny. But cast your mind to a painting infamously centered on Zuma's crown jewels, which hogged headlines earlier in the year. I guffawed at Brett Murray's 'The Spear' each time I saw it. JZ probably didn't. But he should've. Have you see how big it is (not the actual painting, the other, other 'it')?! He also seemed to lack the ability to laugh when the Nkandla saga reared its head. In Parliament he lamented how his family has become a laughing stock because of the multi-million rand upgrade to his Nkandla home. He should've been laughing himself at how easy it was for government to blow more than R200 million on building bunkers and helipads right before the country's eyes.
Zuma clearly also forgot his humour where Julius Malema was concerned. The little tyrant tried his best to keep his ego on the right side of the ANC in 2012. But Zuma, po-faced and menacing, meant business and sent his protegee packing.
But the president is only human (atleast, I think so), prone to making mistakes and unwittingly abandoning any new year's resolutions, before they've even begun. If there was a glimmer of changing himself in 2013, he too must've dropped the ball... on the 2nd day of a new year.
With my new found positive state of mind, I again declared internally to work on building a six pack, to take up jogging and to eat more greens. Note: This purposeful stance was arrived at with a beer lodged in my one hand, a glass of cheap sparkling wine in the other, my well fed boep peaking out from under my shirt. Oh, irony who impudent strumpet! My healthier lifestyle could wait until the sun rises. That ball of fire and hydrogen rose far too soon; not just for me, but for the millions who also resolved, in a haze of over-indulgence, to become awesome, amazing, richer and thinner in 2013. By the evening of New Years day, a bottle of red wine stood empty on my kitchen table, my running shoes remained hidden in the wardrobe (where they've been more months) and Steers burgers beckoned. With this fantastic failure to launch, I forced the guilty to one side and consoled myself with a chorus of pop psychology 'mantras': 'You're only human, tomorrow is another day. Just try harder.' The nausea swirled into my soul. I am indeed only human, as are my fellow humans, among the elite of the ANC and government. My guilt searched for twisted logic to justify my failed resolutions. Instead my lingering cynicism dragged my substance-addled mind back to familiar territory. I focused my disappointment on, well, other disappointing things (disappointment, like misery, loves company) in a sad attempt to lift my mood. And so my mind limped onto thoughts of doom and gloom: the ANC.
Did the too resolve to better this year this year? I think so. Most party members may've still been drunk from the 'successes' of the Mangaung elective conference as the end of the year arrived. Many probably waddle-danced there way into a new year, ecstatic and elated at Jacob Zuma's victory. With their spirits high, many comrades may've settled on improving themselves in 2013. Could some have resolved to stop stealing from tax payers? Many may just have decided to actually get off their well lined backsides anf to start doining something that doesn't involved enriching themselves.
The policy resolutions from the conference could in many ways be interpreted as New Year resolutions of sorts, declarations of intent, where the ruling party wants to take the country, not just in 2013, but beyond that. Surely Msholozi, fresh from his re-election, made his own personal leadership resolutions. Denied the ability to read minds, I can only broadly speculate what these are.
On marriage, the President may just have decided firmly over a glass of his favourite tipple to whoo another bride with promises of easy business connections, an allowance compliments of tax payers and even her own spot in the sunshine that is the Nkandla compound/home/residence/base/kraal/estate. Would his resolutions include anything in the way of bettering his body and mind? Perhaps he wants to sharpen his intellect by actually reading something of substance. He could even keep his reading preferences close to home. There are books abound based on former comrades. Frank Chikane penned a book in 2012. There's one on the rise and fall of Jackie Selebi Zuma could thumb through for a laugh and a scowl. Hell, maybe he dares to pick up a copy of Zuma Exposed. As my high school English teacher would say, "A book, no matter its content, helps the mind, no matter it's content.' If Zuma could maybe pick up even a newspaper (not the New Age) in 2013 he could perhaps enter the reality the rest of the country endures daily. In 2012 when the country burned amid strikes, the Marikana tragedy, a declining economy; it seemed the president spent far too much time inside, dealing with party politics.
Will JZ resolve to develop a sense of humour this year? To me it seems to have llargely escaped him in 2012. The last half of the year was far from funny. But cast your mind to a painting infamously centered on Zuma's crown jewels, which hogged headlines earlier in the year. I guffawed at Brett Murray's 'The Spear' each time I saw it. JZ probably didn't. But he should've. Have you see how big it is (not the actual painting, the other, other 'it')?! He also seemed to lack the ability to laugh when the Nkandla saga reared its head. In Parliament he lamented how his family has become a laughing stock because of the multi-million rand upgrade to his Nkandla home. He should've been laughing himself at how easy it was for government to blow more than R200 million on building bunkers and helipads right before the country's eyes.
Zuma clearly also forgot his humour where Julius Malema was concerned. The little tyrant tried his best to keep his ego on the right side of the ANC in 2012. But Zuma, po-faced and menacing, meant business and sent his protegee packing.
But the president is only human (atleast, I think so), prone to making mistakes and unwittingly abandoning any new year's resolutions, before they've even begun. If there was a glimmer of changing himself in 2013, he too must've dropped the ball... on the 2nd day of a new year.
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