Saddled up but no horse

THE ANC has its head in the sand, like the ostrich who refuses to see the problem. The “unseat Zuma” vote was a joke. The ANC is firmly in the saddle, but the saddle is not firmly on the horse. We are headed for disaster, what with this failed vote, a bloated social grant bill, junk status and a shrinking percentage of revenue-generating taxpayers.

One can almost predict the increased costs in areas like transport and VAT to shore up the dwindling resources.

That is the national picture. But what about the Western Cape?

We are the opposition. The opposition that keeps South Africa a democracy.

As long as the ANC doesn’t control all nine provinces, there is a glimmer of hope.

But I suspect we have a similar case of Zuma’s stubborn ineptness in the feisty Patricia de Lille.

She seems intent on running the city into the ground. The dry ground on the beds of our evaporated dams.

Her governing style is back-to-front. She has practically tabled a bill of R3 billion for ideas she has to rehabilitate our water supply. Long before we have even added a drop of water, we are groomed for increased rates and costs.

Her fragmented plan for boosting our supply of potable water is the equivalent of a flawed Lego set: fit whichever piece you can and hope for the best.

A bit of drilling, barge-boat desalination, a scattering of boreholes, etc. We read of the punitive measures in the shape of fines, increased rates and water-usage monitoring devices fitted where households flouted the “save water” campaign. These people are guilty of a heinous crime. It’s like drinking and driving.

In both cases the punishment does not fit the crime.

And I have mooted the available spring water under the streets of Cape Town, beneath the Castle and below that cash-cow, the brewery.

There is also the De Lille decision, now a fait accompli, of dividing the governance into four regions named (unimaginatively) after the cardinal points.

This caused horrific retrenchments of very capable directors and planners. Devolvement is one thing. Divide and weaken is something entirely different.

We now have the added expense of more bureaucratic logistics. What was she thinking?

Let’s do some maths. Take the ANC heroes who voted for Zuma to go, and who are genuinely interested in applying expertise. Then rope in the brave, if shaky, skills of De Lille. Reactivate or resurrect the UDF whose anniversary we are celebrating.

They represented resistance to racism across the social spectrum. Mix and stir. Maybe, just maybe, we might get the combination of diversity and skill that we need but ignore.

Let’s cohere into a force that has the same common cohesion that worked to oust apartheid.