SA needs the prescribed cure for the likes of this doctor

Cometh the hour, cometh the man … that is what we, as a nation, desperately wanted in our time of crisis last year as Covid-19 enveloped our country.

We needed our Winston Churchill, so that he could tell us that our victorious fight against coronavirus would unite us as one people and that, a thousand years from now, historians could also say of us: “This was their finest hour…”

Like so much else in our troubled country, the reality was a long way from the dream – and in this case, our hero, our idol, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, turned out to have feet of clay.

Even now, as it appears his political career hangs in the balance, it is difficult to escape the disappointing conclusion that he could well be just like most of the rest of the ANC – out to get as much as he can from his official position for himself and for his family and friends.

It is pushing credulity to extremes to accept his protestations of innocence that he had nothing to do with the awarding of a R150 million communications tender to his ANC comrades, and that he still believes there was no conflict of interest.

It is a “firepool” excuse of the same level as the other farcical explanations from ANC comrades who have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Some of Mkhize’s colleagues are trying to portray him as a naive victim of circumstance … but that, too, means accepting that a sophisticated, worldly wise professional and politician paid no attention to what was happening around him.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC must stop hiding behind the legal niceties – at the very least, the health minister is guilty of spectacularly bad judgment.

He must go.

And we, the people, hope there is a cure for deep disappointment.