A VIEW OF THE WEEK: SA is literally burning, but we have the wrong people at the stake

After cold, dark nights and weather as dull as an ANC statement, spring brings hope eternal.

When I was young it signalled the start of a season of joy, sun, sea and the circus. But the circus came early this week when politicians descended on the scene of a tragic fire in Johannesburg.

The blaze, which guttered a five-storey building in the CBD, killed more than 74 people and left dozens injured. The property was owned by the city but was leased to an NGO. When the lease was up, syndicates reportedly hijacked the building and started an indoor informal settlement – a claustrophobic hell that is anything but a Fun Room.

Emergency services rushed to the scene, as did politicians. While frontline workers ran head-first into danger, policymakers stood on the sidelines eager for their voices to be heard.

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Their condolences were rushed as they soon reverted to their default blame setting.

Everything from syndicates to apartheid were blamed, with President Cyril Ramaphosa claiming this was a “wake-up call” to the nation and Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu saying the nearly 30 years of her party’s rule were not enough to undo the damage done by its racist predecessor.

Others, like Joburg Transport MMC Kenny Kunene and his Patriotic Alliance partner Gayton McKenzie, wanted to talk about illegal foreign nationals more than anything else.

It was another demonstration of how out of touch those who rule have become. Instead of mourning the loss of life and enforcing policies that protect residents, everyone but them was paraded as the problem.

Ramaphosa was perhaps the only one in hibernation for winter, and in need of the “wake-up call” about a building crisis the rest of the nation has known about for so long. As citizens and civil rights organisations constantly raised concerns about structures in the city, those in power were asleep at the wheel.

It has been a sleep so deep, it has got Zulu believing 30 years is not enough to fix a problem. How long is then needed, minister?

For 30 years there have been metaphoric fires to be put out, but when the physical one burnt this week the president and his sleepy government could no longer look away.

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They need to address the failures they have contributed to. They cannot, as the minister seemingly alluded to, tell victims they simply should have spoken up about their situation. Neither should they tell those who have lost their children that their nationality is the real problem.

Illegal immigration is a crime and must be treated as such, but to parade undocumented foreigners as the evil in a time of tragedy is a clown act – and this circus is already pretty full.