ISSUES AT STAKE: Address the brewing storm of disorder
The important lesson government must learn is that after many years of unchallenged mismanagement, the masses have and are becoming increasingly wise to the wholesale theft of public funds, lies and deceit.
The near-impossible balancing act of isolating people as a protection barrier against the dreaded Covid-19 virus, while still keeping the economic engines of the country running to ensure some degree of sustainable livelihoods for the battered citizens, is obviously a situation placing government between a rock and a hard place.
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Satisfying everyone is impossible. But at least an informed populace is an empowered one.
The majority of South Africans are doing their best to arrest the pandemic, but government must ensure they have all the information at hand to better understand when tough decisions need to be taken.
This will hopefully eliminate some of the unnecessary disruptions we have become accustomed to, which in itself causes much damage to the economy.
The important lesson government must learn is that after many years of unchallenged mismanagement, the masses have and are becoming increasingly wise to the wholesale theft of public funds, lies and deceit.
One understands that the Covid pandemic has severely impacted job security as the economy shrunk, and across the board retrenchments had to be introduced to ensure survival.
Retrenchment should be the last resort, however, and while many companies, state-owned enterprises and government departments found the coronavirus an unexpected ally in justifying the shedding of posts, government heads and company CEOs have also been guilty of dishonesty.
The recent retrenchment carnage at the SABC, where 600-plus employees lost their jobs, is a good case in point. Like with the collapsing SA Airways, the writing was on the wall well before China exported its virus our way.
Government’s hesitancy (or incapability) to implement timely restructuring, prudent budgeting and profitable efficiency, instead throwing billions of public funds at the entities without any feasible rescue plans on the table, is what caused the demise of the two once-proud institutions.
Unfortunately, South Africa has perfected the names game, especially when it comes to the sacking of people – downsizing, rightsizing, fit for purpose, lean and mean, and so on.
And also the blame game – forever looking at scapegoats in a futile attempt to explain away the total failure of the cadre deployment policy.
The people are suffering, so let’s get down to the business of honesty, integrity and efficiency to resurrect SA, once the powerhouse of the continent.
To expect slogans and false promises to continue to appease the growing disgruntlement of a frustrated and increasingly poor population, would be folly.
Serious and tangible interventions are now urgently required to stave off the gathering storm of major disorder, which will cost this country very dearly.
*Dr Khaya Gqibithole is a lecturer in the English department at the University of Zululand
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