A VIEW OF THE WEEK: No lights in SA – and no bright sparks in Ramokgopa oversight U-turn

How many Metro Police officers does it take to turn a traffic light? Six apparently.

The city police had me chuckling this week when I came across a pic of them “saving the day” by turning a skew robot the right way.

The department said the light was tampered with to “confuse motorists” in the city centre and the officers took the initiative to reposition it.

While this little act was as heartwarming as it was funny, it quickly became a metaphor for the state of our country at the moment.

As we try to “reposition” ourselves as a nation from elements out to confuse and frustrate us, we need to make sure we are indeed facing the right way.

For a start, we need to make sure the lights are actually on.

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11 and a half hours a day without power became a way of life again this week, thanks to Eskom and load shedding. Perhaps it is time for the owl or bat to become our new national animal, because we have become so comfortable in the dark.

It was worse for the most elderly, desperate and vulnerable in society who had to wait over a week or more to access social grants promised to them. A technical glitch was blamed, and hollow apologies were issued.

The minister of social development Lindiwe Zulu, communications minister Mondli Gungubele, and Postbank CEO Nikki Mbengashe finally stepped out to address the issue with a briefing on Thursday, but they shouldn’t have bothered. Their explanation of the glitch being caused by an upgrade meant to make the system better was laughable. It is a massive failure if the upgrade to make a process better then breaks the system itself.

Gungubele’s apology to orphans, pensioners and the poor was read out as a statement, lacking any emotion or sincerity. Here was evidence again those in government simply do not care about those they serve. An attempt to “fix” the direction the country is going was failing.

The less said about Mbengashe’s claim she “relates” to the plight of those affected the better. She said she was raised by a mother who relied on social grants, and so she understood their pain. She could not have been more tone deaf if she had stuffed her ears with pillows and lived in a cave.

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The Sassa social grant crisis and load shedding meant thousands, and by extension millions, of South Africans who needed relief the most were served nothing but darkness, cold, hunger, desperation and anguish.

It has also delayed court proceedings for an already tardy and ineffective justice system, and compromised the academic future of millions of matrics who are preparing for their final exams.

Education, justice, policing, welfare and virtually every other aspect of society had been negatively affected by power cuts which are now being forced on us because of a lack of prior maintenance.

Here the electricity minister has again shown government’s disregard, often passing rolling blackouts off as normal and a necessary evil.

There has never been more need for proper oversight over him and Eskom. So it was encouraging that those in parliament are debating which oversight committee he should be subject to.

But the suggested committee of public enterprises should not fill anyone with confidence any more than Ramokgopa‘s promise we will find the end to our load shedding nightmare under the Christmas tree.

Among the state-owned companies accounting to this committee are Eskom, Transnet, SAA and Denel. A “bunch of losers” if Fikile Mbalula has ever seen one.

The fires keep burning in the public enterprises sector, with a minister who is sleepy and been called out publicly for not moving fast enough.

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Despite the shopping list of issues to watch, the committee met only 24 times in 2022, and 18 the year prior. There was an average attendance of 65% for these meetings. So far there have been 18 meetings of the committee this year, with 67% attendance. Parliament has been in session for 25 weeks so far this year.

Committees are allowed to meet more than once a week when needed but the public enterprises comittee do not even meet weekly. When it does, around a third of those expected to be there were not.

The electricity minister, who was paraded as a solution to the most devastating crisis this country is facing, cannot be left in hands of oversight committee who has largely sat on its hands while SOEs become the darkest stain on our society.

Robots regulate traffic and make sure everyone knows they are heading in the right directions, we need an oversight committee and government who is committed to moving us there.

Otherwise, I know six Metro Cops who may be able to help.