COVID-19: Government cannot be trusted

COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

GOVERNMENT CANNOT BE TRUSTED

by Gerhard Papenfus

This government cannot be entrusted with anything.

The ANC government entered the Covid-19 fiasco with an already tarnished reputation; and rightly so.

Even those currently in power either benefitted from state capture, denied that it was happening, or at least (not that this a lesser ‘crime’) turned a blind eye. They, the current leadership included, oversaw South Africa’s de-industrialisation, the consequent record levels of unemployment, the looting and destruction of all State Owned Enterprises, the destruction of our education and health systems to embarrassing levels, the dismantling of municipalities, water and sanitation, and, of course, electricity.

Trusting a government with such a track record simply illustrates either an embarrassing level of naivety or a lack of judgement. Trusting this government is similar to the trusting of Bernie Madoff (Ponzi scheme kingpin, currently serving a 150-year prison sentence for swindling billions of dollars from thousands of gullible investors) with your business assets.

Then, out of the blue, appeared government’s saving grace – Covid-19. This virus will in future be blamed for South Africa’s economic woes; not the ANC’s mismanagement and corruption. This is also their opportunity to be the peoples’ saving grace; dishing out food parcels to save people from starvation, while ‘saving’ lives. And then the big achievement: implementing radical economic transformation – destroying the businesses of minorities and further enriching the black elite, with not a trace of concern of what it will do to the economy and the poor.

Using the global ‘pandemic’ to further government’s radical economic transformation agenda and their correction of ‘societal fault lines’, is our government’s very original, opportunistic scheme, their unique version of fighting the virus. It may take time, but it will turn out that their scheme will also be their downfall.

If someone is still in doubt on the question whether government perhaps got its evaluation of the Covid-19 threat or the response thereto right, be reminded of this profound question: “Can both fresh and salt water flow from the same spring”? And the eternal response: “By their fruit you will recognise them. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit”.

Just as the “Cushite cannot change his skin or the leopard its spots, neither can he do good who is accustomed to do evil”, similarly government’s handling of the Covid-19 fallout will prove, not to be its sudden redemption, but, in line with past ‘best practices’, another disaster, in fact their biggest mistake.

For more information:
NEASA Media Department
Marietha Thirion
marietha@neasa.co.za

We are all in this together.
Privileged and challenged to be South African.