On this page yesterday, we made it clear that Mpumalanga premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane should be held accountable for failing to wear a mask at all times during the funeral of minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu.
At the time, there was justifiable outcry around Mtsweni-Tsipane’s reckless behaviour on various media platforms. Since then the premier has responded, in what can only be described as the clearest sign of her absurdity.
In a statement, the premier’s office apologised for what it called a brief period where she was in public without a mask. And then it said: “Upon arrival at the cemetery and disembarking from her vehicle, the premier’s mask was damaged and the premier was oblivious of the fact that it had fallen off. The premier was of the belief that the mask was intact as had been the case throughout proceedings.”
Simply put, the head of the Mpumalanga administration could not tell that the uncomfortable piece of cloth that ought to, by law, cover her nose and mouth was in fact not on her face when she was walking and greeting people.
It gets worse.
During a 702 radio interview yesterday morning, her spokesperson Sibongile Mkani-Mpolweni claimed that there was nothing strange about her boss not noticing her mask had fallen off.
It is similar to people who wear glasses and go to bed without realising they still had them on, she claimed.
When asked why the premier was hugging a police officer, Mkani-Mpolweni said she was in fact not hugging the officer. She was merely leaning over to hear what the officer was saying while trying to avoid falling.
The entire saga and the response from the premier’s office would perhaps be funny if it was not showing us the seriousness of the leadership crisis we have in this country.
Mtsweni-Tsipane’s behaviour and subsequent responses demonstrate not only her astonishing disrespect for the intelligence of the people she leads. It also shows the ridiculous lengths she would go to to avoid taking full responsibility for her actions.
The question we must ask then is, if she would do that over something as simple as wearing a mask, why must we trust her to exercise ethical leadership on more complex matters that face the Mpumalanga government?
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