Ryland Fisher
One of my biggest take-outs from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on Wednesday night was that he expected all of us to do the Jerusalema dance challenge on Heritage Day. My reaction to the speech is a bit flippant, I know, but I have been struggling to take politicians seriously for most of my life, and especially over the past few months.
As the lockdown regulations, instituted to halt the spread of the coronavirus, reduced from Level 5 to Level 1 over the past few months, so has confidence in the government, the ANC as the governing party, and the leadership of President Ramaphosa.
It was a mere six months ago when almost everyone in South Africa, along with international organisations such as the World Health Organisation (Who), congratulated the President and government for their decisive action in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
But, if a week is a long time in politics, six months is a lifetime.
The announcements made by the President in Wednesday’s speech could turn out to be the best thing for our country. It could also turn out to be the worst thing.
That has been part of the problem that the President has had to deal with during this crisis. Closing down a country to save lives does not sit well with the populace when you are destroying jobs in the process.
The President has not been helped by what appears to be deliberate attempts by people who appear to be in a different faction to him in the ANC undermining him and his government at every twist and turn. He has also not been helped by Ministers, some of them in his camp, who have come across as completely ineffective and inefficient during this crisis.
I understand that the President, in his speech on Wednesday night, had to deal with attempts to get the economy back on its feet, especially after the damning information from Stats SA last week which showed that the country’s Gross domestic product (GDP) had shrunk by just over 16 per cent between the first and second quarters of 2020, mainly attributed to the lockdown in response to the threat of the coronavirus.
I listened attentively as he went into great detail about the return of international flights, in a sense trying to convince himself as much as trying to convince us. It was like he was trying to say, “I know overseas tourists probably brought the virus to our country, but we need their dollars and Euros.”
This was probably the most difficult decision that the President and his band of advisers had to take in the past week. Opening the country’s borders means it is highly likely that there could be new imports of the virus, even though he was at pains to say that no one would be allowed to visit from high-risk countries. I wonder how American president Donald Trump will respond when South Africa tries to block American citizens from entering our country? A not-so-gentle nudge from the leader of the world’s biggest economy could quickly see South Africa changing its stance on the countries from which it will allow visitors. America, of course, leads the Covid-19 infection rates by a country mile.
I understand the logic for allowing more people to attend funerals and events, but I was disappointed that he said nothing about relief for the arts and culture sector, whose members had protested in Cape Town and Pretoria in the morning. He also said nothing about sport, which convinced me once again that the President and the government have no clue about the business potential of the two industries.
Arts and Culture is more than just something to entertain people or about drawing pretty pictures, and sport is about much more than two people or teams competing against each other on a sportsfield, something using balls or different shapes and sizes, and sometimes using only their physical strength. Both have shown that they have great economic potential and should be taken more seriously by government, especially one who is desperately trying to convince young people to vote for them. If government cannot support arts, culture and sport for the role they play in uplifting the nation, then maybe they should look at its economic potential.
It is ironic that the only reference to arts and culture was what seemed like a poor attempt to jump onto the bandwagon of the global Jerusalema dance craze. At the time of writing, something like 130 million people internationally had already viewed videos of the song created by producer Master KG with singer Nomcebo Zikode.
It was good to hear that business and labour appeared to be working together to come up with a solution to our country’s economic problems. Often the two are at odds about the economy, even though both are elites. The unions would not like to admit it, but they are elitist by virtue of representing workers who have jobs. Often in these discussions, the voices of the unemployed, who are fast becoming one of South Africa’s biggest constituencies, are not heard.
I was less happy that the President chose not to address the huge elephant in the room more aggressively: what is being done to bring to justice the many people, some of them in government, who have looted the money meant for Covid-19 relief? We don’t only want to know about monitoring that is happening now. We need to know what will happen to the people who have already stolen millions, if not billions.
The President could also have given more of an indication of how he intends to deal with incompetent ministers or those who intentionally set out to undermine him during this difficult time. One of the ministers who come to mind is the Minister of Defence, whose actions in taking an ANC delegation with her on an official trip to Zimbabwe could be seen as a slap in the face of the President’s attempts to promote clean governance.
The more he allows ministers like Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to defy him with apparent impunity, the more his credibility will suffer. It is not enough that the ANC intends to pay for the trip. Everything about it is just wrong.
It is time for the President to rise above his position in the ANC and to give priority to his position as leader of the country. That will mean taking decisions in the interest of the country that might upset his comrades in the ANC.
If he does that, I might even be tempted to join him in a Jerusalema dance on Heritage Day, even though I have two left feet.
(Written as a blog especially for this website on Thursday, 17 September 2020)
