Welcome to South Africa, Minister Pandor

Beyond a bored Willie Madisha texting her “hong hong hong” at 3am, Minister Pandor is receiving actual threats.

Thursday’s State of the Nation Address was so boring that the post press briefings became about a minister’s extra security. Imagine! Needing security in South Africa? Who would have thought?

It’s as if there were no political killings in Natal, no attorneys being killed. I wonder how judges feel when violent prisoners they have had to put away are released on parole. Speaking as if we don’t live in a country where the threat of violence is involved in serious decision making and intimidation in contention to be declared a national sport.

Is it not a bit on the nose that a minister who was elected as an MP in 1994 and has been a senior politician at a national level since.is reacting to increased threats?

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Threats are awful and should not be the norm. It’s just that under who’s leadership has the culture of political intimidation been allowed to fester?

What about our security, minister?

Let’s be honest, it’s not like there was no political intimidation pre-94 but 1994 is a long way away and with a new democracy, one would hope that one thing we’d get right is having the system being functional.

A functional system requires some form of respect for the law. If nothing happens to you when you break the law, you can’t expect the system to function that well.

So what do our ministers expect? That they’ll only be making popular decisions? Because if they were to reign over a country that had a stable, resourced and effective police and security service, would there really be a need to beef up security if an unpopular decision was made?

And what about the little plebians who run small companies who get potted in Bloemfontein parking lots? Where was their additional security? Why, living in the system the ministers created, are they unworthy of the beef that the ministers can get on our dime?

Obviously, we’re hopeful that Minister Pandor and her family remain safe physically and emotionally. This is just the country we’re living in and we can’t ignore the glaring question that is “why is it so?”

Why do we live in a state where people believe that political intimidation can be seen as an acceptable, and assumingly effective, political tool? It’s not like this is a new phenomenon in the political arena and especially in Pandor’s circles. Remember when Gwede admitted some 8 years ago that selections of candidates can be a life and death issue?

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I guess you can never really prevent jackasses from being jackasses and threats will always be there so sure, we’d need to beef up security where needed.

We’re just idiots for thinking that it’s just okay to shrug and accept that this is the life we need to live; a life where we address threats with extra beef in the country where most are lucky if they can afford pap. If you want to be safe, in your home, in your street or wherever, you need to pay for it.It’s not the way to live and now that Ministers Pandor and Cele are feeling the brunt of it maybe there will be more action to prevent this kind of terrible political pressure. It would be great if we could live in a world where ordinary citizens could be safe. It would be ideal if ministers could be safe. What is really upsetting is that one of them has access to the security needed while the others have to pay for it. And as long as that’s the structure, why should it change?