Sorry, Alan Paton, although your book title does seem to reflect well where we are as a country. Or perhaps we could take a leaf out of Zapiro’s cartoon this morning and call it ‘buy the beloved country’.
Either way, wow, but it’s been one hang of a week.
Maybe it seems like this week was more of a sucker-punch because I missed the bulk of the news; having taken myself off to sit on the beach, I didn’t access any news, or my email.
It rained.
Getting back to find out that the Hawks have upped their campaign against the new not-new finance minister, and that the Guptas are allegedly running the country, was a shock to the system.
Read also: Guptas don’t run SA, says Mbalula
The cracks are indeed starting to show.
Now there are all sorts of questions around the Guptas, whether President Jacob Zuma will be removed from his post this weekend and whether Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s job is safe.
No one seems to know what to make of all of this. Zuma has come out in defence of Gordhan, the ANC has said that no-one (implying that this includes Zuma) is above the law, and why the Hawks are targeting Gordhan is the subject of much conjecture.
Read also: Is Jacob Zuma’s job in peril?
And there are, always, more questions than answers. Just ask DA leader Mmusi Maimane, who was so frustrated at trying to get answers (or, perhaps, make a point) that he kept interrupting Zuma in Parly yesterday, and got thrown out.
The markets also don’t seem to know what to make of this lot: first the rand drops yet again, then it recoups some of the lost ground, while the JSE scores on what looks like a governmental showdown.
Whether we will ever find out what is really going on I don’t know. I suppose when the dust settles we should be able to work out most of the behind-the-scenes ructions
Hopefully, that day will come soon because, frankly, the government is falling apart and is rapidly resembling the state of infrastructure.
Read also: MPC surprises with increase in repo rate
My thinking is that we don’t need this, but we don’t need business as usual either. So maybe we do need a shake-up so that the country takes the pain now, and can then be set on a growth path.
I haven’t seen much in the way of plans being put into place to get the economy growing at a rate that will create jobs. All I’ve seen are the same apparently empty promises from the government about the New Growth Plan - which replaced how many other growth plans that didn’t work?
I’ve seen Gordhan vow to clamp down on public spending yet again.
And I’ve seen roads fall apart, pipes burst and rubbish pile up in the streets.
No wonder it’s raining - someone needs to cry for this country.
Maybe the current circus that is government and all these shocking revelations are - in fact - just what we need. Maybe then the economy can be put on the right path, and maybe the poor beggar who was standing in the rain this morning can have a better life.
On another note, if you are travelling in the week ahead, please be safe, SA needs you.
* Nicola Mawson is the online editor of Business Report. Follow her on Twitter @NicolaMawson or Business Report @busrep.
IOL