SA government ignores filth, but prioritises political showboating

Instead of exercising good governance and everything associated with it, our government prefers political showboating and petty school ground politics while ignoring the filth we are drowning in.

Cheap political rhetoric is exactly that: cheap.

It carries with it no action and merely attempts to further fracture our already fragile unity, while trying to gain political points for the next election.

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One of the characteristics of the failure in governance we contend with on a daily basis and that is increasingly noticeable is the filth that blots our cities, towns, the countryside, our roads and our rivers.

Plastic bags, bottles, papers, and other rubbish is seen everywhere.

Central government and its municipalities show no concern for this mess we are expected to accept and live in.

In lesser privileged areas, open sewers and pit toilets are normal. After almost three decades, it appears as though South Africa has taken a giant step backwards.

Is this what we voted for? Striking municipal workers, a lack of interest, municipal corruption and crumbling infrastructure are forcing us to drown in filth.

In fact, South Africa has become a giant rubbish heap – and we witness no attempts to clean up the mess by those whose job it supposedly is.

Illegal refuse dumping has become the norm. Our rivers are afloat with plastic bags, raw sewage and other rubbish.

The environmental impact is massive – and no-one seems to care. It ought to be of great concern that our scarce groundwater reserves are being contaminated.

Yet, our government continues to use their decades-old excuses: it is someone else’s fault or there is no money.

Yet, SA Tourism tried to do a R1-billion deal with an English British football club.

Maybe if this money went to cleaning up the country, tourism would attract more investment and foreign visitors.

We recently gave R50 million to Zimbabwe and another R100 million to South Sudan.

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Whereas one can appreciate the giving of aid to those in need, our government’s first priority ought to be to help its own people, who are in desperate need.

Or fix our broken infrastructure. Or clean up the filth. Or stop the out-of-control criminality and corruption that South Africa has become associated with.

However, this is not how the government thinks. Instead of helping its own citizens, it will rather give financial aid to despotic governments or hide it in their own pockets.

Corruption is not – and has never been– a democratic right.

The government’s attempted recent plan to prevent investigations into Eskom’s massive corruption is proof how corruption flourishes under our democracy.

This makes a mockery of good and transparent governance and attempts to use the justice system to protect those leaders who live and thrive in a world of corruption.

On the subject of justice, what has happened to the very costly Zondo commission’s findings?

It seems a lot of legal minds made a lot of money – again at the taxpayers’ expense.

Perhaps it has now simply become another dust collector in some office seldom frequented by some senior official who seldom visits his or her office.

As with so many things, the ruling party has opted for an approach of “might is right” and whoever disagrees with them, is wrong.

Democracy doesn’t work that way and this approach illustrates how they can get away with the corruption they commit.

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But the ruling party only believe in democracy when they are able to dictate and practise corruption with no accountability.

The South African government, instead of being the custodian of democracy and the flag-bearer of good governance, has become a hiding place for criminals and morons often posing as ministers of the state or directors-general of the civil service and SOEs.

Whereas most of us don’t miss apartheid – that evil system the government keeps mentioning – we miss law and order, governance, electricity, working SOEs, functioning government departments, and more.

But missing what worked doesn’t stop us from drowning in filth and criminality