A VIEW OF THE WEEK: The music is still playing in SA but we’re not dancing to the beat we think we are

Maybe it was my fault leaving Joburg on a Friday night. The mixture of traffic from an accident on the N3, weekend fever and the approaching Dezemba holidays was a powerful cocktail for an impromptu dance party on one of SA’s busiest routes.

A truck overturned just outside Pietermaritzburg, blocking the road heading down into the city. To make matters worse, there was an oil spill that had earlier left cars skidding as they hurriedly tried to pass. One major accident had almost become four or five.

As emergency services closed off the road, traffic built up in a snaking queue to rival the ones you see in Braamfontein on student nights.

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Our car stopped in the gridlock, unsure when and if we would ever move again, when suddenly the taxi in front threw its doors open and pumped up the volume. Passengers rushed out as the amapiano beat built, dancing in the headlights as shirtless truck drivers honked their horns and sat with their doors open to add to the jovial noise.

Only a few days later this long route would be the scene of Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga and her bodyguards being robbed. Personal belongings and two police service pistols were stolen during the incident.

These moments on this road paint a picture of the nation we currently find ourselves living in. While we are all aiming to head in the right direction, there are often accidents and oil spills that delay or make our progress impossible.

And then a few minutes later the doors open and a politician or two come out dancing to the wrong beat.

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ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula was one, this week declaring himself an avenger against corruption. Despite several questions about his links to corruption-accused, including the controversial Gupta family, the former minister declared that his name “will not be associated with corruption”.

“I have never supported corrupt activities. I am the first person to stand up in an NEC meeting and point out that we have a Gupta problem,” he said, as he opened a case of crimen injuria against businessman Mthunzi Mdwaba on Thursday. 

Mdwaba implicated Mbalula, Minister of Education Blade Nzimande, Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in allegedly soliciting a 10% bribe from his company’s R5 billion project related to the Unemployment Insurance Fund deal. All politicians have denied the claims, with some threatening legal action against him.

Hours earlier, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the anti-corruption dialogue in Boksburg he cannot interfere in corruption probes because of the divisions of power, and that any leader who acts as both prosecutor and judge is a danger to society.

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Both these politicians fail to acknowledge the stench of corruption that follows the ANC, which clouds them and their attempts to dance away from accountability for the organisation and their responsibility to air it out.

In their positions, they should be doing more to address and fight corruption within the ANC, not paying lip service.

City of Johannesburg power utility City Power has also been caught dancing to a different beat, with its newly-introduced load shedding schedule leaving the lights more sporadic than at groove.

City Power officially took over load shedding from Eskom on Monday, promising the lights would stay on for longer, even under Stage 6 and 7 rolling blackouts. Instead, it created confusion with new blocs, and some areas were load shed twice within eight hours.

It will take a few weeks for the teething issues to be worked out before they dance to the correct tune.

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It may not have been his songs playing in the dark, but MarcAlex catchy tunes are exactly the beat we need to get us on the right path, Quick Quick.

Marc Rantseli’s death was announced on Thursday, leaving the nation in mourning.  

I hope soon those who hold the playlist will once again get dancing to the right beat and deliver.

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