POETIC LICENCE

I’VE PRAISED Gauteng’s Nasi ispani jobs programme for the loaves of bread it would put on dusty tables in township households. Whether the tables are unstable or sturdy, thewy are wooden platters in our shacks, in our RDP houses.

I’ve also emphasised how the programme could scour thousands of platters clean for those who call the townships home. Remember, a clean plate holds sacred space; it is gratitude for the food eaten and that awaiting to be dished up. Every meal is a ritual that many pray to partake in.

I’ve highlighted how the programme would appease empty bellies and dusty tables. It would benefit unemployed individuals, including recent graduates and those who've been struggling to find work; young men in the township, who are constantly idle, suspiciously pacing up and down the streets or aimlessly standing at the corner. They are the same older boys in the township who used to tell us that when you enter the city of gold, you need to change how you walk.

Opportunities for growth and development for young women in the township are often overshadowed by the challenges they face. The forcefield of limited opportunities stunts their growth and potential. May God protect them from the wrath of the shadowy figures that we become when we are caged in the hunger that lurks in the rumbling belly of the city, where desperation can lead people down dangerous paths.

May God protect them from the shadows we become when we have learnt to lurk beyond the mist, beyond the fog and beyond the smoke at every street corner the older boys call a hangout spot.

However, I wasn't surprised to read that Premier Panyaza Lesufi's Nasi ispani programme has been labelled as nothing more than a “gimmick” aimed at enticing unaware voters to support the ruling party in the province. Or that more than 300 beneficiaries of the programme haven’t received payment for their work since February because the funds ran out.

I couldn’t have been surprised; these things happen regularly. Just last October, workers staged a sit-in at the Matjhabeng Municipal headquarters in Welkom in the Free State to demand that they be paid immediately. In the prior October, ANC employees staged a picket outside the ANC headquarters over unpaid salaries.

What surprises me is the responses to non-payment of salaries. But with the Nasi ispani, it was a contradiction in the response that raised my eyebrow.

On one hand, Gauteng government spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga rejected the claims that the programme was a gimmick and that it had run out of funds.. On the other hand, Mhaga said that they had a payment schedule in progress that had made two batches of payments and “all outstanding payments will be completed in two weeks”.

Doesn’t a payment schedule mean you have admitted to not paying salaries?

Since we are accustomed to cheering for crumbs, I praise the programme for the loaves of bread.