As you read Saving
Siyeza, it’ll be in a world beset by Covid-19’s ill-effects. The pandemic now
seems all-enveloping, descending into malevolent and potentially criminal
management. Because we behave as we do, we rush to pick faults and villains: as
fast as we expose a celebrity within our infinite Social Media target range, we
shred them as worthless, vile, yesterday’s sensation.
But in South Africa, there are deeper problems.
The ANC somehow weathered a torrid century, the last quarter in full power.
It’s done so without knowing what to do with itself, let alone the country’s
challenges. The profound manipulation wrought by two sets of Indian bothers –
the Shaiks in the 90s and the Guptas in the 2010s have left nobody convinced
that the ANC leadership intend to correct corruption and reset the nation’s
moral compass.
So any CV-19 reaction would be set against such
political vulnerability, where leaders are suspended rather than imprisoned.
They have an immunity against conviction as well as infection. And for those
outside this protective shield, there is nowhere to hide. This is where Lesebo
Bafokeng somehow flourished, where Kobus Labuschagne held firm and where Maddox
Illingworth kept his cool as he overcame a succession of obstacles judged above
his pay grade by Cape Town’s criminals.
Would these Saving Siyeza characters win through
in today’s CV-19 real horrors? It’s an interesting hypothesis we might return
to shortly.
Post Views : 191