Building collapse points to ANC’s negligence

It is hard not to conclude that the ANC does not take us seriously.

The organisation says it does, at every given opportunity, but its actions betray a totally different reality.

How else can you interpret the ANC government using buildings which are not fit for human occupation for years on end?

Last week the country was shocked by the images of a firefighter falling to his death from a burning Bank of Lisbon building in Johannesburg.

This is a building which was occupied by no less than three provincial government departments; the departments of health, human settlements, and co-operative governance and traditional affairs.

This is a building which has recently been rated 21% compliant and as thus unfit for human occupation, when it should have been 85% and above.

It’s not the only non-compliant building though. There are reports that government workers have been raising the matter of the building’s condition for years.

This points to a government which is grossly negligent, not serious about governing and frankly, out of control.

Only the fire and the tragic deaths of Simphiwe Moropane, Mduduzi Ndlovu and Khathutshelo Muedi (may their souls rest in peace) have moved the Gauteng government to act and evacuate people from the building. It is tragic and unacceptable that loss of life has become one of the very few things able to move our government to act on matters which are otherwise obvious.

It takes Life Esidimeni deaths, the death of children in pit latrines, the xenophobic murder of foreign nationals, all so that the government can move an inch and stop.

This is the definition of a political culture, a political party and an administration which is not in the least serious.

Why such an administration would even consider being trusted to continue running the country baffles the mind.

Why such a political party, would enthusiastically run for elections, is itself a reflection of the utterly hopeless attitude most of our political parties hold concerning their role within this nation.

Further than that, it has emerged that only 15 fire-engines are in operation, serving a population of around five million in Johannesburg, when in fact it should have been more than 100.

At the core of the delay to acquire more fire-engines are suspicions of corruption which forced the mayor of Johannesburg to stop the tender.

Thus once more, the ugly head of corruption is at the centre of government failure, a sure sign of citizens not being taken seriously.

But behind this also, is the grossly mistaken socialist inspired idea that government should somehow be used to benefit previously disadvantaged business.

This idea re-purposes government from being an administration tasked with keeping order, creating a fair atmosphere of freedom and enterprise, into a machinery for the enrichment of the politically connected by any means.

It is an old stale idea which is destroying everything we hold dear, only to create morally bankrupt elites whose impact only further strangles our future.

Instead of a clean administration, whose sole focus is to create an atmosphere of growth and development for all South Africans, we get successive administrations that think they can simply enrich the connected, and continue deluding the masses that this would translate into growth and development for all.

This has been tried so many times before, and always ends in administrations which are so off the mark that they routinely kill people through will and negligence, and obstinately cause untold economic hardships for the most vulnerable in society. Venezuela is a very clear example of this.

Why does it not become clear that this trajectory is not only doomed to failure, but also decimates the chances for the least developed to develop themselves and become contributing members of society? It should be very clear, especially in 2018, that these kinds of administrations become dangerous to society, that are obsessed with keeping themselves in power to feed the parasitic elites they themselves create.

But also, leadership of society, an idea the ANC loves to associate itself with, is not about claiming legitimacy of leadership as most people in SA are led to believe. Rather, it is about the value that leadership can bring to society.

The legitimacy of leadership does not in any way guarantee the ability to envision, implement and continuously improve results towards a better society. Its core obsession is about who holds power, not how that power is exercised to improve society. This view can only fly where citizens are not taken seriously!

Only 15 fire engines are in operation, serving a population of around five million