Kevin Ritchie
Uncle Cyril had no sooner announced this week that he’d be chatting to us next week than the conspiracy theorists immediately went into overdrive hinting that we were going back into lockdown. Despite him actually saying that this wasn’t the case at all.
He can’t win. Shortly afterwards, he placed himself in voluntary quarantine – as the protocols require – for coming into contact with someone who had Covid-19. It’s a world away from Agent Orange in the White House who became his own super-spreader, taking down almost his entire military leadership and his cabinet in one fell swoop.
There’s a lot for President Cyril Ramaphosa to speak about when he addresses the nation next week. Unlike Jacob Zuma who cynically captured the phrase like so much else that wasn’t bolted down, Ramaphosa does actually have a good story to tell.
The Hawks have been swooping here and there arresting all manner of previously untouchables – some for crimes that occurred as far back as a decade ago. The NPA is busy dusting off dockets and preparing new ones, while Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s commission is increasingly riveting as he casts his net far and wide to access relatives’ bank accounts to the gall of the kleptocracy who accuse him of not fighting fair.
The stones under which some of the low-level state capturers once hid are being lifted, the gilded palaces of those higher up the food chain thrust open as all manner of malfeasance; historic and present, is detected and prosecuted.
It’s early days yet and a warrant of arrest executed “Hollywood-style” does not necessarily mean anything of substance, but it is a very real message to people who didn’t just think the law applied to them, they played the system shamelessly to avoid being brought to book.
But there are still some really big blind spots too, like SAA which received a monster bailout this week from finance minister Tito Mboweni. And yet, he also moved to curb public service expenditure and freeze salaries which in itself is unheard of – even if those cuts will go to pay for the bailout.
Things are happening here.
Our Covid-19 response is just one of them. Citizens in many other countries are up in arms as their governments institute lockdowns that still aren’t a patch on our level 5 or the level 4 that was actually level 5.4 that followed. The British government sill cannot get itself to speak unequivocally about wearing face masks, while its regulations about pubs (if you buy a pie you can get a pint – otherwise no drinking), almost make Ebrahim Patel’s Kafkaesque stab at cropped tops and open-toed sandals the modicum of rational thought.
As for the US, they’ve got a chance to put things to rights next Tuesday, but if there was ever a more apt exposition of the Winston Churchill aphorism: “the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter,” then it’s now.
Don’t be surprised if Donald Trump gets the keys to the White House a second time. It also explains why Ramaphosa perennially finds himself on the back foot.