Surprise, Covid-19 suggests government can deliver what it should have all along

But that is what Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu did this week in basking in the thanks of a community to which her department had provided water after years of delay.

That, minister, is like thanking the fish for swimming, as someone pointed out on social media.

Sisulu has used the Covid-19 crisis, basically, to do her job: delivering water to the people.

It is sad that much of that water is still being delivered by tankers because her ANC comrades in local authorities around the country have either deliberately, or negligently, destroyed existing water supply infrastructure.

But it is still noteworthy that government has needed a national disaster to get its act together and start the sort of service delivery which has been conspicuous by its absence for years.

In the same vein, it is noteworthy that the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has managed, because of the emergency, to issue much-needed extra temporary internet bandwidth to some local operators.

This has been done to ease pressure on the networks, which has been caused by far greater numbers of people working from home and using video conferencing, as well as streaming services.

But why could this have not been done sooner? The bandwidth issue has dragged on for years – despite it being clear from global experience that plentiful and cheap bandwidth is a key driver of economic growth.

The fact that it can be solved indicates that there was no justification for drawing it out.

The positive side of this crisis has shown that government is capable of delivering services.

Hopefully, it will no longer be able to hide behind the same old excuses.

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