We are already dying of hunger.
What is irregular procurement of Covid-19 resources to the rise of food insecurity, if not another pothole to nirvana?
Our stomachs have long been rumbling.
The chime is falling into our inner ear.
We dance to the rhythm now.
Time is calling - and asking; what are we, if not survivors?
Who else if not us is ordained to become combatants, outlaws, recipients of a concomitant of modern day plagues?
This is OUR WORLD. We are bearers of empty plates.
What is a face mask to a tin of baked beans? To a loaf of bread? To a 2.5kg bag of maize meal?
What is a meal to a people who are fluent in the dialect of dancing to the echo of their tummy’s reverberation?
Is it not hope? Or perhaps faith? If not, then something else we can't eat - like hashtags. Like trends. Like promises.
To whom does this hope or faith lay?
Our mouths are always waiting. But we need to stay home. Stay safe. Stay hungry.
Yes, we have white people in the townships now - but none of them can walk on water.
They are not here to save us.
We have been here before.
No! Actually, we have not moved. We have remained where the coloniser has left us.
We sidetracked to where the coloniser had led us.
I remember when this destination was foretold.
Perhaps unfolded or retold.
But it was in 2008. I was about 20-years old.
It was about 14-years into our liberation, when Thabo Mbeki said; the easiest route to access the world of abuse of state power for the purpose of self-enrichment, is to join the ANC.
Now, I am not saying the coloniser taught us corruption.
I am rather saying, acquaint yourself with the principle of causation.
Mbeki said if you get yourself elected to positions of authority, that will get you into government.
And as government, you will be in this OTHER WORLD with access to tenders, contracts, and 10% kickbacks.
A causation of abuse of membership of the ANC to access state power.
It is easy to see how this ties to our stomachs.
How this ties our stomachs.
How we are battling extreme poverty aided by Covid-19.
What chance do we have when the ANC in Gauteng has admitted that claims of corruption against its deployees in government continue to harm its image and jeopardises the public’s trust in the organisation?
All is not well, neither is it fair.
What is their reputation to our welfare?
Public trust in their organisation to our lives?
What are our lives to the controversial awarding of a personal protective equipment contract worth over R100 million to presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko’s husband?
What is money?
If not a tale of woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption.
Children starving to corruption - like there aren't many other threats to their lives. Children dying.
We are already succumbing to hunger.
Covid-19 is threatening to wipe out the gains we have made in combating poverty.
We are begging for a fighting chance.