Merry-go-round of blame games as the rot piles
LOOKING around me at the strange world in which I live it seems the main function of any successful politician is to know who to blame. As we follow the reports of Gauteng’s Life Esidimeni health crisis that caused more than 100 deaths, we watch the blame being shifted from one shoulder to the next, achieving nothing. Those patients are still dead.
I believe one of the reasons we have so many ministers, deputy ministers, directors-general, senior vice-assistant deputy secretary generals and so on is to be able to spread the blame as widely as possible.
These officials don’t actually fix anything. Their job is to explain why they were not fixed.
When a labourer bangs a pick through a water main and loses a million litres of water, the politicians leap into action and demand that the minister of water pipes should resign.
The minister says it was nothing to do with him and he is setting up a commission of inquiry into the department of regional water pipes and they, in turn, are investigating the actions of the senior municipal superintendent of pipes for not preventing the pipe bursting.
Meanwhile, a plumber has fixed the pipe and the labourer has moved his pick to another building site while the parliamentary commission of inquiry is compiling a 600-page report allocating the blame for the accidental pipe burst.
One of the reasons so many older citizens complain is not so much the lack of service but the fact that the service used to be so much better.
Leon Dreyer was born in Simon’s Town way back in 1929 and grew up in the harbour town, catching the convenient train into Cape Town whenever he needed to go to the city.
Now the train doesn’t go to Simon’s Town any more because the wind has blown sand onto the track, blocking it completely. The line is buried a metre deep in places. The authorities say they have no money to clear the line and the politicians say it’s all because of unseasonal winds moving the sand.
The weather bureau says it’s not their fault. Wind control is a provincial responsibility. The ANC blames the DA. Mr Dreyer says: “Ever since I’ve been here we have had wind. It’s nothing new.
“Every year the wind blew sand onto the line and they sent workers to move it off so the trains could run.
“Now they leave the line buried and hire buses at great cost while the line rusts.
“They could spend the money they are wasting on buses and buy a bulldozer instead to push the sand off the rails.
“Meanwhile, I watch the line rusting unused in front on my house and wonder how long it will be before somebody steals the rails and sells them to a scrap dealer.”
Last Laugh
A master of ceremonies is somebody who is invited to a dinner he doesn’t want to attend in order to tell some jokes he can’t remember to people who have heard them before.