A VIEW OF THE WEEK: Forget Dezemba, our politicians went on holiday long ago

MPs in the National Assembly have officially left the building.

The parliamentary schedule ended this week, which means members who earn over R100,000 a month are now also taking an early December holiday while most of us slave away at our desks.

Perhaps they feel that they deserve it after a year of politically wrangling over positions, which led to the formation of a government of national unity (GNU) to create a bigger trough to feed from.

Vacant: The voter

The ANC and EFF lost support in May’s election, while the DA and IFP gained marginally. Voter turnout was below 59%, and, less than 40% of the eligible voting population.

GroundUp theorised that it was the lowest attendance since the dawn of democracy.

If political parties’ concern for this were real, it would have sparked further alarm this week when over 80% of registered voters in Ward 11 of Thabazimbi, Limpopo, did not cast their ballot in a by-election. Turnout across the whole municipality only stood at 38.55%.

The ANC got the most votes in the election but, as is a national trend, will have to sheer power with other parties in a coalition.

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While the results show that South Africans still do not trust a single political party to lead them, the turnout suggests that the negligence and absence that politicians have treated residents to for decades are being dished back at them.

Citizens have gone on a political holiday of their own, believing that if no party can deliver vital services that are needed why bother?

Politicians and the accountability crisis

A key role of Parliament is oversight and accountability. While there are other mechanisms to ensure these while politicians jet off on vacation, their absence is what got us here in the first place.

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According to the latest Auditor-General’s report, only 13% of municipalities received clean audits between 2022 and 2023. It also highlighted how basic services like water, sanitation, electricity, and housing have declined and corruption grows or persists.

Simelane saga a ticking timebomb?

Oversight and accountability failures run all the way to the top and were on full display during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s late nice cabinet reshuffle this week.

In it, he moved corruption-accused Thembi Simelane from her justice portfolio to the human settlements department. Instead of listening to calls for her to be axed or suspended, Ramaphosa pulled his old and tired trick of exiling “problem” ministers to less visible portfolios.

ALSO READ: Cabinet reshuffle: ‘Simelane doesn’t belong in Cabinet, end of story’

But, like Water and Sanitation before it, Human Settlements is not a detention room for naughty politicians. It is a vital department.

It is, according to its mandate and goals, responsible for “upgrading informal settlements; and creating an enabling environment for affordable housing by continually reviewing policy and implementation programmes”.

In a climate of deteriorating services and a housing crisis, any misstep could be catastrophic. If the department is allowed to deteriorate further because of politics, it could lead to even greater crises in the country.

These decisions by those in power continue to create a gap of trust between voters and politicians.

One so large you may even set up a tent and go there on holiday.

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