What an imagery, the commander-in-chief of South Africa painted to describe the manner in which the government plans to end the blackouts that are crippling the country.
He said to end the blackouts, “we must shift gears”.
“We do not need another plan. We need to accelerate the implementation of the plan that we have.
“We have already taken a number of important steps to reduce the severity and frequency of loadshedding,” said our compatriot.
“To end loadshedding, however, we must shift gear.
“A crisis of this nature demands a coordinated response, and it demands urgent action,” he said.
It reminded me of a newspaper cartoon I saw recently of our fellow citizen merrily cruising in a car – I shall call it South Africa 2.9 turbo diesel –flashing his dashing smile while the vehicle is coming apart, gearbox included I suppose.
Trust his excellency to use the imagery of one big problem to convey how he is going to solve an even bigger problem.
All I could think of when he spoke about shifting gears were our roads that are full of freight trucks no matter the time of day. I thought of the rail network that has been vandalised and stripped off its bare essentials.
I thought of long convoys of coal trucks on roads in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. I thought of potholes and sinkholes that we zigzag as we navigate our way to different destinations.
On Friday, I thought of “shifting gears” again when I saw an article about a disaster waiting to happen in the western parts of Joburg as electrical infrastructure is vandalised and illegal mining compromise the structural integrity of the same electricity infrastructure.
In addition, the interception of state-owned diesel pipelines by criminals to steal litres of fuel, the new gold given the growing black market with blackouts being the order of the day is rife.
It is only a matter of time before those pylons came crushing down on the communities in the area.
Back to the imagery of shifting gears: listening to our fellow countryman talk of accelerating the implementation of plans, it is like hearing him talk of a lean and agile executive to respond to the pressing issues that are keeping South Africa in grey-zones, yet still continue to have one person juggling two full-time jobs and have unfilled positions in a country in which people are quick to kill and get killed for positions.
It is like having your most prestigious suite – the presidential suite – vacant even when the guest has long left after offering to pay the full amount for the early departure.
Perhaps a more appropriate imagery would have been that of putting together a broken-down car.
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