A government that only reacts

There is nothing more demoralising and disheartening with the ruling party’s continuous method of being a government of reaction, as opposed to being a government of change and reaction.

Perhaps this change that we are promised during elections is nothing more than an electioneering slogan – translating to nothingness.

Even scarier, the change in the political calm is inevitable and we need stability to preserve law and order for business to continue.

When the townships burn, all that the government can do, and has been doing, is just to react.

From president to president, these are the same government leaders who feel no shame in walking to informal settlements, littered with tin roofs of shack dwellings, where an air of poverty permeates the air.

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The settlements named after heroes of the struggle, Winnie Mandela in Tembisa, Steve Biko informal settlement in Wesselton and even Ramaphosa settlement in Reigerpark – names that were meant to inspire, possibly propel leadership to act in the best interest of the people – only for them to be left in an inescapable abyss of poverty.

This very air gives rise to alternatives of big retail challenges that cannot be afforded by the people who call them home, not just squatters, but townships who wish to circumvent the high cost of living, right down to mere basic foodstuffs.

The issue of spaza shop compliance raises its head, all too often. Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie laid it on full display that the goods sold in some spaza shops had either expired or were of dubious origins, as recently as pre-elections.

How could health inspectors have forgotten and allowed further noncompliance?

Once the cameras were switched off, so did the ability of inspectors and government to keep spaza shop owners in line with compliance regulations. Today, at least six children are no more.

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The argument of township residents that for the township inhabitants, the government is reactive cannot be ignored.

There’s a service level failure not only by the ruling party, but also by every party that occupies a seat in parliament. That the opposition parties themselves serve as nothing but numbers to a head count.

Nothing more than bench-warmers if they cannot compel, or even motivate, the powers that be to learn to be preventative as opposed to this continuous reactionary method that leads us nowhere.

When will compliance be a prerequisite rather than afterthought?