There is more than enough money available in this country, were it effectively and honestly managed, to build a social utopia.
A while ago, when Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis boasted about having turned parts of the city into pedestrian-only zones, a wag pointed out that achievement was nothing compared to Joburg, where Bree Street in the CBD has been car-free since July 2023, when a massive gas explosion destroyed part of it.
Also this week, as the second anniversary of that explosion neared, others on social media noted that when a massive sinkhole appeared on a Japanese city street, it took the authorities just over a week to get it repaired.
Bree Street, as current photos show, is a massive hole filled with water, the restoration project having already consumed tens of millions of rands and produced nothing.
And therein is the sad reality for a country whose leaders are currently grappling with how to construct a budget.
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Nothing you choose to do – whether you go down the capitalist or socialist route, or a mixture of the two – is going to work unless the thieving, begun and pursued by ANC cadres and their accomplices, continues.
So far, though, not one of the scores of senior people whose names emerged from the festering puddle of corruption has been put behind bars.
Apart from meaning that “our people” – phrase copyright Cyril Ramaphosa – get no justice for their money having been stolen, this lack of accountability or consequences has already percolated down, so that a country with tendencies to bend the rules is in danger of becoming that cliched gangsters’ paradise.
Remove the various economic ideologies and there is more than enough money available in this country, were it effectively and honestly managed, to build a social utopia which could rival the chrome-and-glass spires of Middle East megacities.
The fight over a minor VAT increase shows how divorced our politicians are from reality.
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