South Africa is a country that is fabulously rich in speeches and promises but extremely poor in action.
Every day there are podiums being climbed, crowds addressed, reports delivered, assessments made, ribbons cut — and no serious action taken. The first month of 2022 has been devoted entirely to words delivered by those who govern — or, more accurately, misgovern us — and yet very little action has flowed from the verbiage we have been subjected to.
“Actions speak louder than words,” as the saying goes. Sadly, in a country that is sinking under the weight of crime, poverty, unemployment, inequality, violence and deep polarisation, no one among our leaders seems to be awake to the deep and urgent problems we face. Reports calling for action on numerous issues have piled up on various desks but no one seems to act on them. We are failing.
SA is burning and, instead of taking focused and decisive action, we have become a debating society
It’s been a month since the first part of the Zondo commission’s report was released. We have almost forgotten about it. Any action? None. And please, don’t tell me that “they” are working on it. The NPA has known for years that the Zondo commission would deliver a report. Why didn’t it have prosecutors and others ready to take over cases — at least the easy ones — as soon as the Zondo report was delivered? This is why the state capture perpetrators are taunting whistle-blowers and threatening them with harm. They know that they are immune from prosecution.
Empty talk is SA’s game. Action? Dololo (nothing).
Take the reports this week that, four months after President Cyril Ramaphosa threatened to suspend police commissioner Khehla Sitole, he still has not done so. Four months after he received a report recommending Sitole’s suspension, the president is apparently still giving the matter “his attention”.
Now, it does not take a genius to realise that Sitole has been an absolute and utter failure at his job. This is a man who was caught napping by the July 2021 riots (342 people dead). This is a man on whose watch the SA Police Service has become the laughing stock of the country. This is a man who has essentially left poor people at the mercy of criminals and prosperous people at the mercy of the sharks running the private security industry. This is a man who has been in his job since the Jacob Zuma years and still hasn’t delivered anything even remotely meaningful in combating crime.
Last week the final report of the Special Investigating Unit into Covid-related procurement irregularities was released. Hundreds of political office bearers, businesspeople, officials, middlemen, members of the ANC’s national executive committee, defence force luminaries and others are implicated. Believe me, many of them are sitting at home right now feeling very relaxed. No action will be taken.
You see, we are a country of words and speeches and promises. We looooooove long speeches. We love listening to them and quoting them. SA is burning and, instead of taking focused and decisive action, we have become a debating society.
The political year started with the funeral of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu on New Year’s Day. The best way to honour him, I heard some of our leaders say, is to follow in his footsteps and act in the pro-poor fashion he did. Their words were forgotten the minute the ceremony was concluded. Have you seen any act of leadership from our political class that in any way reminds you of the courage of Tutu?
In the same week, the ANC celebrated its 110th birthday. More words, more speeches, more promises were made. As the various fleets of ANC luminaries rolled into Polokwane, the first of the Zondo commission’s three-part report was released.
Now, if there is anything that did not require more words it is the commission’s report. It encapsulates years of words. What it needs is simple: arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of state capture. Sadly, I don’t think we are going to see prosecutions arising from that report.
The month has seen the ANC’s NEC have its regular meetings and a lekgotla. Cabinet has just finished its own lekgotla. Various reports are cluttering the president’s desk.
Next month we are going to be hit with the state of the nation address, parliamentary debates on the speech, plus the budget speech. I dread to even speculate about how many times the phrase “we will ...” shall be employed. No one will bother to update us on what our leaders said they would do last year, let alone in 2019 when this administration was sworn in.
What is to be done? I humbly suggest that we insist that no speeches are delivered by our leaders unless they contain at least 10 points of “we have done x, y, z ...”
As you can see, I’m still a dreamer.
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