Social grants debacle: Hunger breeds desperation

It seems in the multilayered social strata which so typify the complexities of South Africa, you tend to find the most vulnerable of our citizens hopelessly enmeshed in a cloud of uncertainty and obfuscation.

And if, as some weighty analysts tend to maintain, the social grants debacle is more about political infighting than the demands of providing to the most needy the bare moral necessities of humanity, two things become abundantly clear through the cloying mists of uncertainty and finger-pointing.

The first is that if this is indeed the case, Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini should be made answerable not only to parliament, but to the 17 million South Africans who rely on social grants for their unenviable survival.

Yesterday’s media conference to address this looming catastrophe offered little, either in the way of answers or assurances for the future.

The second, more unsettling consequence would be that, if this fiasco of departmental planning has political overtones – or more specifically, is aimed at protecting the interests of one faction within the ruling party against the onslaught of those espousing a differing opinion – it has all the frightening potential of starting a fire in a dynamite factory.

We sincerely hope for the good of this country that the latter is not the case and that humane, common sense will prevail.

But the caveat is that some solution must be found, sooner rather than later. Surely the government is mandated to rule justly and equitably and the people of this country do not deserve to have this uncalled for potential conflagration foisted upon them.

Hunger breeds desperation and, like the revolutionary forces which toppled the French royals, they are not in the position to eat cake. If the crisis is left to slide, hunger must surely be an inevitable consequence.

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