TESSA DOOMS | Growing list of symptoms of neglect by uncaring and failing government

When history looks back at this era of SA history, I am certain that one chapter of the book will be titled “The Age of Neglect.”

Burning buildings, exploding streets, flooding settlements, endless litter and hospitals without water are but a few of the growing list of symptoms of neglect of governance by a government that does not care.

Incompetence comes in many forms, but the most insidious and dangerous form is quiet neglect. Taking action is loud. Active efforts that result in crises like corruption, wasteful expenditure, abandoned road construction and systems failures at the post office are hard to miss.

Consequently, we are able to call attention to these issues, resisting continued failures and making demands for improvement. In action however is quiet. If nothing is done then the government and the politicians elected by people to run it have fewer things to take responsibility for and be held accountable for.

While actions like corruption bring unfavorable headlines that risk naming and shaming implicated politicians, inaction means fewer headlines and more opportunities for politicians to proclaim that they are “working on these issues” and “plans are being made”.

The administration of Cyril Ramaphosa is making an art form of kicking the can down the road. The problem is that unlike the old adage that adelay is not a denial, when the delays result in failing infrastructure people suffer death, not just denial.

When police are underfunded and understaffed,crimes that could have been prevented cost people their lives. When thousands of hospital posts are not filled, overwhelmed nurses provide substandard care and critical surgeries are delayed for weeks.

When a government neglects its duties a delay is not a denial, a delay is death. On August 30 2022, the Parliamentary Monitoring Group reported that in National Treasury’s reports to parliament on the first quarter of the 2022/2023 financial year, gross government under-spending was occurring in the public service.

National Treasuryn said 12 departments were underspending, most notably public enterprises that failed to spend R17.8bn on the Eskom liquidity crisis and R9.4bn that the department of social development failed to spend as it delayed social relief of distress grants. Some may say that this is asign of prudent governance.

Others among us may breathe a sign of relief that atleast the money was not stolen. Those bars are far too low for a country in the grips of an electricity crisis and where mothers are killing themselves and their babies because they think death is a better option than suffering hunger.

This is a sign of a government that is not taking action. The other sign is how much of its responsibilities the government is willing to defer to the private sector and NGOs. The fact that disaster relief is now assumed, by communities and officials alike, as the responsibility of organisations like the Gift of the Givers is indicative of the fact that we do not trust the government to act in times of crisis.

The high levels of outsourcing the state does of its thinking work through endless commissions and highly paid consultants hollows out rather than improves the capacity of the public service.

While the government drags its feet or waits for others to act on its behalf, SA slowly decays away. The people of SA are becoming resigned to our fate until the neglect turns from incompetence to disaster. I often imagine that in the minds of incumbent politicians staring down the barrel of an election they think that the less they do the fewer things can go wrong and the more promises they can make.

That in the absence of their direct action, blaming apartheid or NGOs is more palatable. That by doing nothing, history may not herald them as heros but won’t have evidence that they were villains. But this is a politics that puts personal gain over public service. The cost of doing nothingfor people is simply too high.