A word game for the politically frustrated

HERE’S a fun around-the-braai-fire game for those dark winter nights when the national grid is down, again.

So, what is the single word that best explains the ANC government’s dismal performance after 26 years in control? Is it corruption? Incompetence? Ignorance?

A case can be made for any and all of them, as well as for an array of others. But, to my mind, virtually every milestone that marks the ANC’s extensive and mortifying failures of governance can be traced to a single characteristic – expediency.

To put much-quoted poet Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken to less lyrical use, every time two roads diverge in the political thicket, the ANC can be trusted to take the one not less travelled, but the one that looks the easiest. It will choose the road that will get it out of the immediate fix, avoid the imminent inconvenience, or delay momentarily that difficult decision, no matter what abyss looms ahead.

The ANC won’t act against corruption because so many of those guilty of it are its members or supporters. It’s expedient rather to try to contain the extent of state looting than to have to arrest half of the Cabinet.

It won’t act against incompetence because the nationwide inability of virtually every government department or state-affiliated entity can be traced directly either to cadre deployment or the dire influence of ANC-affiliated public sector unions.

It’s an expedient but attractive quick fix instead to outsource the most critical functions to the private sector.

Expediency is the curse of the ANC. It’s the worm in its every apple. Most recently, it’s the lawless minibus taxi industry.

It’s difficult to think of any other country where a mafia can inform the nation on Sunday that it intends on Monday to cause the eventual death of hundreds, possibly thousands of citizens, unless the government pays a massive ransom.

Where else, except South Africa, would the response to such criminal, homicidal blackmail not be the declaration of martial law, mass police deployment, and pre-emptive arrests of the ringleaders?

Here the reaction is no more than a plaintive squeak from the government.

“Please don’t do it,” pleaded Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula. Please don’t defy the lockdown regulations that limit the number of passengers in a minibus taxi, to thwart the spread of Covid-19. And please don’t ignore the ban on interprovincial travel.

Let’s not have a “collision”, he said, over the R1.315bn that the government has offered the taxi owners as Covid-19 relief for reduced revenue during the past months.

The medical profession, aghast at this flouting of social-distancing regulations by the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco), also warned of tragic consequences down the line.

But the taxi industry ignored the medical experts and defied the government.

On Monday this week, the minibuses were again filled to pre-lockdown levels.

Predictably, nothing happened. No roadblocks, no fines, no arrests.

The man who styles himself as Mr Fixit was metaphorically wringing his hands in despair: “There’s no need to defy any law. There’s no need to take to the streets and fight over these particular issues.”

Part of Santaco’s show of strength appears to stem from irritation that Mbalula had cancelled meetings at which they were hoping to prise an even more generous dollop of relief funds. But the reward of a bigger cash payout is only part of the matter.

It is also about avoiding a world of future pain. Covid relief to Santaco comes with stringent conditions: the taxi owners must formally register as businesses; they must register with the SA Revenue Service; their employees must be registered with the Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Compensation Commission and for the skills development levy.

This is unthinkable for the lawless sector.

After the stern warnings, Mbalula, like one of those clockwork toys, is flagging after only three days. He has apologised for the missed meetings and is already hinting at concessions.

“I appeal to the leadership… to reconsider their decision to incite lawlessness. While we have expressed support for a review of loading capacity to 100%, until the current directions have been revised, the legal loading capacity is 70% and enforceable by law enforcement authorities.”

In South Africa, the lesson learnt over almost three decades of ANC governance is simple. It is that the government’s default modus operandi is expediency.

It will blink. It will fold. It will choose the Mr EasyFix route of appeasement over necessity.