Cape Town - A caring government would not have hesitated in implementing the high court order directing it to ensure power supply at health facilities, schools and police stations.
In fact, a caring government would not have had to be directed by a court to do what is expected of it.
With the same enthusiasm that it exempted Cabinet ministers and their deputies and bought them standby generators, the ANC-led government of President Cyril Ramaphosa should prioritise the most vulnerable in our society.
That is what it always claims to do – but of course its actions say something different.
To now appeal the same court order that seeks to ensure the protection of these essential human rights is basically showing South Africans, in particular the voters, the middle finger.
It says the ministers and their deputies’ lives are more important than the rest of us. Yet these are the people who will soon be coming to our homes pleading with citizens to give them another chance to lead.
What kind of a government is that, which is so detached from the lived realities that confront its people?
What kind of government does not get bothered, at least, by the fact that small businesses, the backbone of the economy, are shutting down almost daily as a result of power cuts.
A government that prioritises the needs of its ministers more than patients who are fighting for their lives in hospital can never be caring.
A government that puts the futures of millions of pupils at schools in peril is not a government.
No government would take comfort knowing that its citizens may not be able to report crime as a result of load shedding.
To describe Ramaphosa’s government as out of touch and one riddled with incompetence, big egos and arrogance would be an understatement.
That’s not what the founding mothers and fathers of our democracy gave their lives for.
They must be turning in their graves when those we entrusted to lead have turned their backs on South Africans. Next year will indeed be a defining moment for the future of this country. It’s that important.
Cape Times