MANDY WIENER: South Africa’s MO is to react – not act earlier than the disaster erupts
Government appears to by no means act in a preventative or cautionary method, however is as an alternative continuously reactionary, writes Mandy Wiener.
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OPINION
You can’t put the toothpaste again within the tube.
Yet our political leaders in South Africa appear to suppose this is totally attainable.
Every day we see cupboard ministers and MECs scrambling to reply to a breaking information story, a newly brewing scandal, or some dramatic improvement.
Invariably any motion we see is reactionary, not preventative or precautionary. Prescient warnings are ignored.
Then there is an try to revert the scenario to what it was like previously by containing or limiting occasions. But this is unattainable to do. We generally tend in South Africa to wait till the scenario is uncontrolled, till one thing is damaged, earlier than making an attempt to repair it as an alternative of stopping it from falling aside within the first place when all of the warnings had been clearly flashing.
Police Minister Bheki Cele’s response to the effervescent disaster round unlawful mining on the west rand is a first-rate instance of this.
It was solely after the story broke about eight ladies being gang raped by unlawful miners and undocumented foreigners in Krugersdorp that Cele and the highest brass of the South African Police Services (SAPS) swung into motion.
Cele has ordered a “full SAPS clean-up in the West Rand”. Over the previous week, there was a unprecedented present of pressure with raids and media-publicised operations being rolled out.
National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola vowed to ship extra officers to the world.
“We will respond through action, as the police. We will deploy the highly trained TRT (Tactical Response Team), NIU (National Intervention Unit), Special Task Force, and K9 teams to make sure we flush out all undesirable elements in this area. Whoever comes with fire will be met with fire,” he mentioned.
But how lengthy have we identified that zama zamas have been operational in deserted mine dumps? Communities within the space insist they’ve been alerting authorities for years in regards to the rampant crime related to the unlawful miners. Instead of the authorities performing early to nip it within the bud, the syndicates have been in a position to acquire a foothold. They now have in depth operations in varied areas throughout Johannesburg, as illustrated by drone footage shared on Twitter by Yusuf Abramjee.
Illegal mining is persevering with unabated on the East Rand. This drone footage was taken yesterday. #ZamaZamas @SAPoliceService pic.twitter.com/sVc6hj7CmE
Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) August 10, 2022
On The Midday Report this week, UKZN Criminologist Professor Nirmala Gopal acknowledged emphatically that authorities might have acted a lot earlier to stem the scenario.
“I think the worry for policy analysts and criminologists is why has the South African government, especially the police services allowed this situation to reach this level. We’ve heard that these incidents and activities have been going on for about a decade and it’s only now after the violent crime against women became public that the police minister decides to intervene – and when he does intervene he wants to intervene with a show of force and that is totally inappropriate and unconstitutional in any event given that the South African Police Service is a service and not a force,” Professor Gopal advised me.
“Crime Intelligence should have been consulted very early when this was brought to the attention of the state, whether it was the police services or the Department of Home Affairs because I think it’s now beginning to straddle a couple of ministries given the illegal nature of the miners themselves but also the criminality that accompanies it. We’ve heard very recently that there are people very high up in Lesotho and South Africa that are involved in this whole syndicate so Crime Intelligence would have helped in arresting the situation much earlier.”
This is very a lot the modus operandi of presidency.
Similarly when 21 younger folks died in a tavern in East London final month, instantly there was a scramble to tackle problems with underage consuming and of the oversight of taverns. It emerged that the Eastern Cape Liquor Board solely had 18 inspectors to test on the compliance in 7, 500 taverns and bottle shops. Residents of Scenery Park had been additionally outspoken about how that they had repeatedly warned authorities that there was an issue, however their pleas had been ignored. It was evident that youngsters as younger as 13 had been frequently being served alcohol, however instantly these accountable had been ‘shocked’ and felt compelled to act.
Government’s dealing with of the power disaster has been no totally different. The President’s electrical energy plan that was unveiled final month needs to be applauded – the elimination of any licensing threshold for brand new energy technology initiatives and chopping down the purple tape obstructing these initiatives is a progressive step. So too is incentivising the set up of photo voltaic panels by households and companies, who shall be in a position to promote extra energy to Eskom.
But the resounding response was that this all ought to have been carried out years in the past to arrest the unravelling of Eskom and the deterioration of the scenario.
In 1998 an power white paper was printed warning that we had to increase capability or the demand wouldn’t be met by 2007. Despite clear suggestions, the federal government didn’t act shortly and start constructing extra capability and now we’re paying the value for not recognising the urgency.
“Timely steps will have to be taken to ensure that demand does not exceed available supply capacity and that appropriate strategies, including those with long lead times, are implemented in time,” the paper mentioned.
“The next decision on supply-side investments will probably have to be taken by the end of 1999 to ensure that the electricity needs of the next decade are met.”
Similarly, when coping with water air pollution, we might have acted a lot sooner to mitigate the issue.
Activist group Save the Vaal Environment (Save) has been pushing authorities for years to repair damaged wastewater therapy vegetation round Emfuleni. The SA Human Rights Commission has mentioned that the Vaal River is “polluted beyond acceptable levels” and 19 million individuals who depend on it as their main supply of water are being affected.
And the response? Dololo.
Time and time once more elected leaders fail to head early warnings and tackle brewing issues earlier than they boil over – from state seize to failing infrastructure at ports and railways to the scary price of highway deaths within the nation.
The National Development Plan accounted for a lot of this and was key to driving authorities’s financial restoration and mitigating lots of the dangers on the horizon. But sadly, it has fallen by the wayside.
Fix the pothole earlier than it turns into a crater. Don’t look ahead to issues to get past restore or totally damaged after which determine to try to restore them.
Authorities needs to be figuring out crises early on after which have the power to strategise and have novel ingenious methods of fixing issues. Creative blue sky considering is what we’d like somewhat than a staid, conservative, purple tape coverage.
We don’t want one other marketing campaign or roadshow or raid or imbizo after the actual fact to autopsy what went flawed, then adopted by an amazing huge present of pressure to guarantee everybody one thing is being carried out. We ought to act earlier than when the warning bells are ringing.