VACCINE INJUSTICE

Are we getting the jab soon? Not with the current lot in charge, decries Barney Mthombothi

It is astonishing that in the midst of the historic pandemic that is remorselessly mowing down lives and livelihoods, the ANC, instead of concentrating all its political firepower on this existential threat, is engaged in an interminable internal dogeat-dog struggle, reducing the virus almost to a sideshow.

To date more than 1.5-million South Africans have been infected, and about 50,000 are dead from the virus. What cannot be quantified is the absolute pandemonium it has caused in people’s lives. Businesses are collapsing. Thousands of jobs have been lost, adding to an already unacceptable level of unemployment. Almost half of the people of working age in SA are unemployed— a catastrophic figure. Schools are barely functioning. The celebration of the matric results this week should not disguise the serious problems in education— which the virus has exacerbated. In fact, unemployment is a function of our poor education, which desperately requires a new skipper. Angie Motshekga is tired and incoherent. She’s done enough damage and should be relieved of her misery.

What’s concerning is that, having initially been caught with its pants down with regard to the acquisition of vaccines, the government still doesn’t seem to have done much to get enough drugs, and it is not clear how and when the entire population will be inoculated. What few vaccines we now have, we seem to be getting in dribs and drabs. A few thousand here, another few thousand there, which doesn’t suggest a properly formulated strategy. We used to go cap in hand to the West for food and financial aid, a practice we thought was passé. But the begging bowl is apparently still very much required. President Cyril Ramaphosa this week appealed to those who have plenty to pass their vaccine leftovers on to us.

All this supplication would have been unnecessary had we planned better — in other words, bought enough drugs on time and put a proper vaccination strategy in place before the advent of winter. Now would be the time, for instance, for the defence force to earn its keep. Last time they were let out of the barracks they harassed and flogged people for fun, and a man died. This time they could do something more useful and life-saving, like helping with vaccinations. But we first need to acquire enough vaccines, which is where the government has let us down.

We’re approaching winter with some dread. We seem to be at the tail-end of a second wave that was more vicious than the first. More people were infected and a frightening number died. But in a sense we were lucky: it was summer. A colder season could have led to even more casualties. The hope was that a significant number of people would have been vaccinated by this winter when the third wave — and flu season — will be upon us. Health minister Zweli Mkhize hinted that it will probably be six months before everyone is vaccinated. Even that sounds a bit optimistic. Which means that without a vaccine for most people, the country should expect the infection rate to rocket this winter.

These are life-and-death issues we’re facing, and the ruling party is gazing at its navel.

We wouldn’t be too worried about the infighting if we were dealing with people who knew their onions. But this is a government that can hardly run a tap.

The tussle over whether ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule should step aside is a huge distraction when the party should be dealing with more important issues. But it’s hard to see how the ANC — or the government, for that matter — can properly function with an indicted Magashule still in his position, and all his dirty laundry being aired in court. Something will have to give at some point. The fact that he’s resisted all attempts to oust him thus far is indicative of the grip he has on the party machinery, and the weakness of those who want him out.

But he’d be mistaken to believe he can follow Jacob Zuma’s script to power. Zuma had Zwelinzima Vavi, Blade Nzimande, Julius Malema and their powerful organisations behind him. Apart from Carl Niehaus and his ragtag army, Magashule cannot boast of similar backing. Also, Thabo Mbeki was unpopular in a way that Ramaphosa is not. There was a view that Mbeki somehow wanted to hang on to power. Magashule’s struggle in the coming days won’t be to ascend to power; it will be more about staying out of jail. Malema saw the gap and sought to exploit it. The trip to Nkandla means Malema has had a change of plan, seeing himself as a potential leader of the radical economic transformation crowd.

Initially he had thought that riding on Zuma’s rotten carcass would put him within sniffing distance of power. But the outcome of the last elections seems to have disabused him of such a notion. The EFF on its own can’t win power. It now wants to piggyback on the Zuma faction.

And so there was Malema, cup of tea in hand, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, in Zuma’s Nkandla homestead, the signal monument to corruption he had excoriated. The man who built his political kingdom by trashing Zuma now wants to be his heir apparent. And Zuma, desperate for friends, has acquiesced. Neither the Zondo commission nor corruption was top of mind. It was Ramaphosa on the menu: how to push him aside and create their nirvana.

The problems facing this country are so enormous and so many of its people are living with the frightening prospect of catching and dying from the virus that one would have thought that not only the government but all political formations would unite as one in the fight to defeat such a deadly scourge.

But instead they’re fiddling while Rome burns.