Is government also planning to add the Cubans to our grant payment?

It is increasingly difficult to comprehend how those in government think, or if they even think.

They are economically and ideologically bankrupt and strategically incoherent. While our own people and those of our neighbours are trapped in poverty, unemployment and hunger, the government has again donated money to Cuba: R50 million this time.

The government has already spent over R1.3 billion on agreements alone with the Cuban government on how to employ Cubans in South Africa. This excludes what is spent on implementing those agreements, most which have yielded very questionable results.

With our foreign policy in tatters and considered by many African governments to be a joke, this philanthropic gesture by our bankrupt government merely reinforces the belief that they care neither for their own people nor for Africa.

It is time that the government realises its first priority is towards its own people, and thereafter to Africa – not some far removed island that has already cost us in excess of a billion rands. Were these charitable gestures made with taxpayers money? No doubt they were.

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So where did the government suddenly find this money that could have been put to far better use? Or is the government planning to quietly add the Cubans to our already faltering social grant payment system? South Africa is part of the African continent.

Yet, suspiciously, our government believes and lives by the motto “Cuban solutions for South African problems”.

Cuba has an unemployment rate of 3.5%. We proudly boast with our growing unemployment rate of approximately 35% – if these figures are to be trusted.

Yet we give money and employment to the Cubans at the expense of qualified, unemployed South Africans. That borders on insanity. Whereas Cuba may have played a role in our so-called liberation, their role was minor in comparison with the rest of Africa.

Cuba ought to be at the bottom of South Africa’s list of priorities with our own citizens at the top. It is time to move on, and away, from Cuba.

Or is there a quiet system of kickbacks from Cuba to some of our already super wealthy ministers? Countries such as Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and others played important roles in the democratisation of South Africa. So why do we prefer Cuba above all others?

Given our government’s many miserable failings both domestically and beyond, one would think there was a desire to become a true powerhouse and trusted partner to Africa.

Not so. Instead, South Africa is trying to further distance itself from Africa and alienate the very few friends we have left on the continent. When we entered the age of democracy, South Africa stood poised to make a major impact on Africa in numerous domains.

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Yet our leaders made sure we became the laughingstock of the continent – a damp squib with no fuse. And they are determined to keep us there. Upon taking control of the government in 1994, South Africa was the envy of many in Africa.

We had a developed economy, functioning and well-developed infrastructure, a thriving defence industry, we exported electricity, we had law and order – no matter how one-sided it was, we had a strong and respected defence force, we had functioning schools with high quality education, and we exported technology.

Before criticism is levelled at wishing for a return to pre1994, this is not the case. What is the case is that we have not progressed.

We have, instead, destroyed what we had and gone backwards. Our government has failed us and the continent on numerous fronts and continues to do so – daily.

• Mashaba is a political advisor