IT’S OUR GOVERNMENT THAT IS AILING
The government has not explained exactly why it was necessary to hire a cohort of health professionals from Cuba. These folks arrived to much fanfare quite late one night this week and were whisked off to a fortnight of quarantine. It would be interesting to know if that is what they expected and how they will pass the time without reading material and TV channels in Spanish. The last time we hired a team of foreign doctors they were not thrilled with the rural settings to which they were posted and then there were complaints that neither side could understand what the other was saying. What makes the current incident even more puzzling is that reportedly this country is awash in under utilized and even unemployed local medics. The cost to the nation of this “selfless and generous gesture by our Cuban brethren”, to quote President Cyril, will be more than R2 million per brother. This figure doubtless allows for some cadre commissions. The medics themselves could collect as little as $1000 each for their stint, as it is well known that this doctor export program is a great foreign exchange earner for the Cuban government.
Coming down from a stringent and vindictive five-week Lockdown during which the authorities even tightened the conditions, will not be simple. The complicated, inconsistent and economically suicidal multi-level plan began to decay even before it officially came into effect today. A survey has determined that we all now understand and try to eliminate, as far as practical, interpersonal infection opportunities. The government and indeed the people are no longer much concerned about COVID-19. However, the former is keen to keep and grow the control they have enjoyed while the latter just want to get back to normal as soon as possible. We are quite done with being told what we may not do, eat or drink and are very restive and increasingly rebellious. And now there is a night time curfew. The government is getting scared of us. This is why so many new soldiers have been put on the streets.
It is clear to everyone that President Cyril is no longer in charge of the country and the one-time presidential wannabe, NDZ in effect now outranks Cyril who is being kept in order to provide diversion and light relief. Unfortunately, her camp is home to some of the more clueless and racist ministers. But they are corrupt. The decision to renege on the president’s promise to allow the sale of tobacco product at this level of lockdown has preserved the very useful cashflows being generated by the cigarette (and probably the booze) smuggling operations. The cadres are pleased. The taxman this week acknowledged a revenue of shortfall of R1.7bn because of the ban on legal sales of these “sins”.
The move to a notionally more lenient lockdown level has delivered the very welcome concession of permitting outdoor exercising (including the family dogs) for a short period every day. It is not explained why a time restriction is necessary as it forces all the exercisers out on the roads at the same moment that there are more cars about. Interestingly, the permitted exercising area is a circle of 5km radius (presumably) centred on one’s home, which absent shorelines and the like, permits a route almost as far as a standard marathon. But few will manage that in the 3 permitted hours! Take-away hot cooked food is now available but not from supermarkets and only for delivery not collection. Job creation I suppose.
The trickiest job tackled by your government this week was deciding which language to use when announcing the return to school dates. For some unknown reason they chose not to use the one understood (if not spoken regularly) by virtually everyone listening. However once that was sorted out it is clear that a huge effort had been put into trying to draw up a schedule. It doesn’t help that several hundred school premises have been savagely vandalized during the lockdown and that the distance learning already in use at privileged schools will never be available for the vast majority of South Africa’s children. For most of them 2020 will likely forever be a gap in their education.
For others, the awarding of the Premiership to Liverpool is a dubious idea.
James Greener
Workers Day 2020