We’ve all flipped a coin at some stage of our lives. Coin flipping was known to the Romans as navia aut caput (“ship or head”), as some coins had a ship on one side and the head of the emperor on the other. Coin tossing is a simple and unbiased way of settling a dispute, or deciding between two or more arbitrary options.
In a game of theoretic analysis, it provides even odds to both sides involved, requiring little effort and preventing the dispute from escalating into a struggle. For instance, where friends decide to go out drinking at taverns during these dangerous times, or imbibing at home, coin flipping will resolve the impasse without a protracted debate. Heads you win, tails I win.
One of my favourite scenes in a TV series involved the flipping of a coin. In episode two of season one of Breaking Bad, Jesse Pinkman and Walter White, the two methamphetamine cooks, must decide how to get rid of two bodies in a vehicle parked in the yard. The victims were gassed in the lab, and the two protagonists cannot agree on how to cover their tracks.
Pinkman carries his side of the bargain after they flip a coin while White reneges.
The coin flip analogy came to mind given the indecisiveness of our hapless leaders. Just last month, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa backtracked on his R20-million flag he wanted installed to foster social cohesion, following a public outcry. So badly does the minister want to burn millions of taxpayers’ money that this week he told the nation he wants to spend R30-million on a Mzansi philharmonic orchestra.
The backlash was fierce given other sector priorities, such as starving artists in the wake of the pandemic.
Not to be outdone, his boss President Cyril Ramaphosa stunned the nation when he told a communist party conference he was mulling over the creation of a state-owned power utility to challenge Eskom’s monopoly.
This follows weeks of load-shedding that plunged the country into darkness and left the economy limping.
Ramaphosa previously told the nation our energy crisis would be solved when Eskom is broken into three parts, so his latest plan took everybody by surprise. He backtracked when it became clear the plan did not have our backing.
It has been said that our government is not short of plans and policies to improve our lives, but what has been lacking has been implementation. We’ve had plans from the RDP, GEAR, NDP and whatnot. I think the time for conferences is over and the government would do well to flip a coin and get on with the programme. Navia aut caput?
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