The incumbent government, as the country approaches the national general election in less than 15 months, has to double up to make South Africa workable, but most importantly there must be a concerted effort on the part of the ANC-led government to commit to ethical leadership, which presently seems to be lacking.
This is also true of other political parties that will be contesting for political power in 2024. If there is any indicator that things might be falling apart, the coalition municipalities or metro administrations overall have been the picture of instability, while the basic needs of the people are hardly attended to.
If we travel in this country, all we see is the manifestation of total failure and collapse of towns, cities and villages brought about by inept and incompetent administration. Broken and sunken roads are a great reminder to motorists how unsafe and dangerous these roads have become under the leadership of the ANC.
Potholes have become the country’s signature – it does not matter where you may be. A sore and pitiful sight. Most of our infrastructures that keep South Africa functional are on their last legs – broken.
Big question: why is this the case?
We can argue as much as we want, there is no gainsaying that the ANC appears to have lost its sense of morality, even as we ought to know that morality and ethical living are key ingredients of life.
Philosophers describe morality “at the very least, as the effort to guide one’s conduct by reason… giving equal weight to the interests of each individual affected by one’s decision”.
The shambles at Eskom and other parastatals are all tell-tale signs of an administration that seems to have lost any sense of shame. It is the government that talks out of both sides of its mouth, on the one hand saying “we are fixing things” and on the other acting contrary to claims of its intended objectives.
The country’s economic growth is stunted, and loadshedding is not helping improve the situation, even as we now have a new electricity ministry. Loadshedding is stunting economic growth, and worst still, decimating small businesses owned by black people.
More seriously, loadshedding is not a blessing to millions of South Africans who do not have a job. When big and small businesses close, the effect is that the unemployed remain jobless.
Which brings us to this point: what incentive is there for the unemployed person to want to vote in 2024?
South Africans are tired of hearing things will get better. They want things to happen. The cost of living has sky-rocketed. Talk is cheap. What we need today is action.
We wish the new minister assigned to the electricity ministry well; it is onerous task Kgosientsho Ramokgopa faces. Yet every day South Africans go without electricity represents another day they lose confidence in the government’s ability to run this country efficiently.
Throughout the 29 years of its tenure as the government, the ANC, in more ways than one, appears to have failed the ethical litmus test. Morality, says the philosopher, reminds us to guide our conduct by reason.
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