Mervyn van Rooyen writes:
In the run-up to the election that handed the white-run government in this country to the ANC I had many arguments with friends and acquaintances about what the future held.
I was positively optimistic and argued that this was the way for the country to go while those who differed with me argued that the ANC was not capable of running the country and the place would fall apart.
These arguments often became very heated and often nearly came to blows, especially with my older brother.
Sadly, I have at last come to the conclusion that those who opposed my views were right and I was horribly wrong.
The country has steadily sagged into a morass of theft and corruption and self-interest, lack of service, and cronyism.
Telkom doesn’t work, the postal system doesn’t work, SAA doesn’t work, the proud steel industry we once had doesn’t work, and water and sewerage don’t work.
In fact, it is extremely difficult to find anything that does work properly.
Nothing typifies this more than the performance of our own Emalahleni Municipality.
This municipality is a typical example of what has gone on throughout the country during the post-election years.
It has now reached the stage where it simply cannot provide basic services.
Case in point being Extension 10 which has had no refuse collection for the past three weeks.
Until collected two days ago black and green bags lined both sides of the streets.
Rubbish from the bags was scattered and blown everywhere.
The place looked like a pigsty not to mention the health hazard being presented.
The reason?
Aw, it’s not our fault, it’s the Covid virus.
Time for a holiday.
Do we really think any dynamic organisation wouldn’t have “made a plan”?
The problem is there is no interest in work, only parties and loud social gatherings.
The perennial problem of water outages is, in my opinion mainly due to mishandling the distribution system but we’ve written about this before.
No doubt our comments have been dismissed out of hand – lack of interest and they don’t need our advice.
I’m quite sure the failures that are currently being experienced are not entirely due to “old pipes”.
That is just an easy excuse which they keep getting away with.
The electrical outages are shared between Eskom and our municipality.
It doesn’t really matter who is to blame, the root cause is the same – lack of interest and proper management by the ANC government.
And so we can go on and on – the wheels are slowly but steadily falling off and those in charge, whether it’s the ANC government or the Emalahleni Municipality are to blame.
And of course; they’re not interested.
And amazingly enough, they’re not embarrassed to be considered totally incompetent by the population of the town.
They’re entrenched in their positions and don’t need to have any skills.
Nobody’s going to remove them – yet!
I’m on a roll now so I’ll vent my spleen a bit further:
That’s the people who perpetually moan and whinge about the lack of service but won’t try to help themselves.
Sometime ago Antonie Brits of the DA opened a WhatsApp group for Ext. 10 residents to report problems in the area.
The operative word here is ‘report’.
Well, I’m on this group but rarely look at it because the majority of users can only complain and moan and whine all day (and night).
I don’t know how Antonie and his helpers put up with it.
A typical complaint is, “It’s Monday and there’s no water again. How am I going to do my washing?”
Lady, I’m sure Antonie doesn’t know how you’re going to do your washing but why don’t you look after yourself after all this time and buy a JoJo tank?
This problem created by the incompetents in the municipality is going to go on for years.
Buy a JoJo tank and stop complaining.
They’re not that expensive and they will increase the value of your property.
People should remember that Antonie is providing a service to the community.
He has absolutely no power or control over the incompetents so try and give him a bit of slack.
Those who argued with me 25 years ago were right.
I was wrong.
