Covid was a missed opportunity for the government to do better

There was a virus in the air and its containment was of grave importance. While police and the army were tasked with keeping citizens indoors, on the front lines were medics whose core function was to save lives.

The remaining sectors of the economy remained skeletal and their core functioning relied on technology, which we were never ready to fully embrace.

We spoke during Covid about schools being torched and citizens being arrested for loitering in streets, but the effects of crimes conducted through personal protective equipment procurement leaves one shocked.

While I have many a questions, the first is: how, when the government knew that the country would require policing on procurement processes in an already rotten system, did we not have any surveillance?

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We have seen a woman who refused to allow the thefts to go unnoticed lose her life. But we must remain brutally honest with ourselves. Even when faced with the fear of disease and death – criminality still flourishes.

While our soldiers remain stationary in keeping our people indoors, the ones in tailor-cut suits were robbing the economy blind.

We cannot have decorative laws that are reserved only for Joe Soap. We need laws that are reason free from passion in truth. Once we realise this by conducting ourselves in an orderly fashion, we will be able to uphold the law.

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Covid was a missed opportunity for the government to do better. For government to question the role it plays in its inability to react appropriately and the laws as set to deal with gender-based violence incidents – while it was important for the purpose of the lockdown that alcohol be restricted – there must be more for policing to do than to chase people who are drinking.

And while our ever (in)efficient government kept its eagle eye on Joe and Jane Soap, their friends in high places, who dined with them, robbed the country beyond vision.

One can’t help but wonder if there is anything the government can do right… at all.