Like moths to a flame, we are a nation that embraces activities rather than outcomes — and then get burned for it. It is useful, from time to time, to engage in the abstract and symbolic. To test our imagination.
But, for a country like ours, we require, for the most part, solutions with practical application. Many people, in corporate and government, relish the idea of appearing busy. They cut ribbons. They launch operations. They stage birthday celebrations. They set up task teams. Aren’t we relieved President Cyril Ramaphosa has given us a break on commissions of inquiry?
As a country with a dark history, the journey away from symbolic attachments will be long and circuitous. Our politicians, especially the new ones who are overeager to create a sense of competence, are motivated by public relations opportunities in their work. It’s the nature of politics, sadly. Yet, we must change this nature and demand outcomes rather than be impressed by the flurry of activity. The logical positivists tell us the meaning of what is said isn’t so much in the text as in the verification of the text’s truthfulness.
The point is that creating a flurry of activities can only help create a veneer of progress. This being the first day of December means the festive season is truly upon us. One of the markers of this period is police launching festive safety campaigns. They have launched these in almost all provinces. Yet there’s nothing about the launches that’s different to last year’s and nothing in what they said that engenders confidence that this time around we will be much safer than before.
Wouldn't it be nice if instead of fanciful launches the transport minister, for example, ensured all traffic officers wore body cameras linked to a nerve centre manned by anti-corruption teams that monitor every action and hear every word of the officers’ interactions with road users?
From today to mid-January (about 46 days) also marks the official start of Arrive Alive, another activity meant to make us feel safe on the roads. The department of transport has, not for the first time, promised us a zero-tolerance campaign, urging us, correctly, to be mindful of fellow road users. Yet the question is what they will do against the lunatics who aren't.
Wouldn't it be nice if instead of fanciful launches the transport minister, for example, ensured all traffic officers wore body cameras linked to a nerve centre manned by anti-corruption teams that monitor every action and hear every word of the officers’ interactions with road users? That, practically, would end opportunities for bribery, or what officers call “cold drink”. And lives would be saved. There’s no PR opportunity here, but this would constitute real, meaningful progress. I would value that more than an event with a massive marquee whose utility is really to enrich some slimy tenderpreneur whose business skills extend to nothing more than hanging on the coattails of corrupt politicians.
In party politics, the DA may bury its head in the sand about the fact that it failed to register significant growth in an election where the incumbent party was vulnerable, beset by myriad challenges. It shouldn’t then be surprised when it remains a stunted party, struggling to get to the mid-20s in electoral percentage performance.
The ANC may seek to disband, this week, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive committee and create an impression it is trying to undo the damage done by Jacob Zuma’s MK Party when, in fact, it’s managing internal political differences. The flurry of activities may, sadly, create an impression something is being done to fix the province, when the truth is different for the continent’s oldest liberation movement. Being busy is, of course, not being productive. A veneer of progress is not progress itself.
We like symbols and gestures. When our leaders have opportunities to not merely look busy, but to engage in productive endeavour and choose not to, they inadvertently give even the worst among us hope that they, too, stand a chance. The MKP, which ordinarily should be struggling for relevance, is turning one in two weeks and it’s talking about a revolution. If there’s going to be a revolution, it’s not because of the party’s all-consuming appeal.
It is because those who have had opportunities to lead and meaningfully transform our country, including Zuma, have managed to create the impression they’re busy. Like moths to a flame, we can’t help ourselves but fall for the umshini wami dance. A veneer of progress is not progress itself. Our predatory leaders have unleashed a whirlwind of activities. They have made activities rather than outcomes the centrepiece of their offerings. We are victims of razzmatazz, not the politician, but the noisy, showy display of nothingness employed by politicians.
It's about time they addressed themselves to the findings of the AG. So far, the outcomes of their actions remain mind-numbing poverty, rampant criminality and unyielding inequality. They must spare us the flurry and do that which moves the needle. Our country will be the better for it.
• Sefara is editor of the Sunday Times
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