As tuskers fight it out, voters are trampled

Security officials remove members of the Economic Freedom Fighters during the State Of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Zuma in Parliament. Picture: Sumaya Hisham/EPA

Security officials remove members of the Economic Freedom Fighters during the State Of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Zuma in Parliament. Picture: Sumaya Hisham/EPA

Published Feb 19, 2017

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The South African electorate is fast assuming the vulnerability of the proverbial grass that suffers when two elephants fight, says Don Makatile.

The ANC and the opposition (read “EFF” for illustration purposes) seem to go about their dispute resolution with more ferocity than the tusked giants of the wild.

Picture for a moment the match-winning wrestling tactics the white shirts displayed in ejecting the Red Berets from the House during the State of the National Address (SONA), and you will get a sense of the grass’s meagre chances of survival.

Parliamentarians

have the saving grace

that their showing in Cape Town is not intended for the validation of the fairer sex, unlike elephant bulls who tussle the competition for the attention of receptive female elephants after

the gore.

But one cannot exclusively rule out this animalistic trophy-seeking behaviour among the male homo sapiens.

Elephants are able to be playful with their tusks, but they can also use them to fight to the death.

Those in Parliament are capable of this as well, from Mbuyiseni Ndlozi congratulating Speaker Baleka Mbete on her nuptials, telling her: “We also believe in love” to the basest of human behaviour as evinced by events at this past SONA.

The biggest fights among the legislators, which are accompanied lately by the sort of creative language that can make a seasoned sailor blush, are about political expediency and have nothing to do with

the welfare of the grass,

the voters.

DA chief whip John Steenhuisen stood up in the House to make what was arguably the most sense in the sea of filibustering. He asked for a minute of silence to be observed in memory of the more than 94 Esidimeni psychiatric patients who died.

This is against the backdrop of the Health Ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba lamenting these deaths in his damning report even when there were

“no guns” used, and

quoting the chilling reminder from Mahatma Gandhi: “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”.

Speaking for the government in the same statement that acknowledged President Jacob Zuma had been appraised of the tragedy and that he welcomed the Health Ombudsman’s report, acting director-general of Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) Donald Liphoko said the government also offered its sincere condolences to the patients’ families.

He said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life of patients after being transferred from Life Esidimeni. Our thoughts are with the affected families to find closure.”

When the time came for the governing party to, in a manner of speaking, put their money where their mouths are, Mbete baulked at the idea of honouring the Esidimeni fallen with a minute of silence.

How could this have impacted the price of bread, you wonder.

The suggestion was shot down for no reason other than that it emanated from the opposition benches.

The howlers in the back benches of the ANC were at their most vocal, drowning Steenhuisen’s request in a cacophony of vituperation.

When he addressed what virtually became an ANC gathering after the opposition had either been frog-marched out or had left of their own volition, it sounded hollow to hear Zuma say: “We are deeply distressed by the death of so many psychiatric patients in Gauteng.

“Once more, we extend our heartfelt condolences to all families and relatives of the deceased.”

In Johannesburg,

the decaying neighbourhood of Rosettenville is in the grip of drugs, prostitution and various other untold crime and grime and you’d think this was reason enough for politicians to shelve their ideological differences to help the community beat off the scourge besetting them.

Not in our body politic where point-scoring is the chief good.

The mayor goes gung-ho into the suburb in a surprise raid after mouthing off about foreigners being surplus to requirements in his town. The only thing the ANC envoy to the conflagration and Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba can find is to pour scorn on Herman Mashaba’s sentiments, which he derides as near xenophobic.

It is the self-same Mashaba whose only preoccupation seems to be to torpedo what he considers his predecessor’s vanity projects, like Sandton’s bicycle lanes.

The community of Rosettenville will have to grin and bear it while the elephants turf it out and, as grass, suffer hoeing.

Putting people first has become a mirage as politicians seek excuses to hurl more insults on the opposition, including sending some to hospital.

An IOL report stated: “Answering questions posed by journalists after the president’s SONA, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said if he were the Speaker of Parliament, he would have granted the DA their request.”

And this simple act would have saved the grass.

The Sunday Independent

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