South Africa’s greatest lockdown is its democracy; the pandemic a temporary heartthrob

The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of The South African

I might be speaking “out of order” but then again, I’m only just blending in with the country’s well-known parliamentary slogan.

You see, I won’t really indulge you about how far we’ve come as a country that seems it hasn’t come far “enough”. It’s a lyric we’re all familiar with, so much so that the tunes are distinctively hummed even by the mouths of babes more deliberately than the wombs that carried them during such a trial and “era”.

The crisis

Currently, we’re facing a crisis that is rather quite peculiar in more ways than several. It has all of us in its grips at such a staggering rate and leaves us wondering If a new dawn will ever be more than a distant utopian. The “Gentle Giants” of both the business world and beyond find themselves having to contemplate on whether life is worth another breath or not because the economy had taken a plummet even before the pandemic had sounded its calls officially in our land.

It makes it quite unforgettable how much of a performance corruption had put on for our display — heck it had 64% of the South African population crying with great despair according to the 10th edition of Global Corruption Barometer. 64% amongst a crowd of 58 million people is not only a cause worthy of concern but rather a reflection worthy of instantaneous direction only this time — with people’s hands off the cookie jar.

Darkness, our old friend

What about the time when the darkness became a friend to us, and it even tried on an endearing term. What was it again? Ah, yes! “Load shedding” but it formally goes by its official name Eskom just to add a bit of braggado when facing the scrutiny of an angry crowd.

The virus has currently infected almost two million people in the world, with countries such as the US and Italy leading in the forefront of the devastation illustrating a rather scary reality of how quick sovereign mights have fallen.

In the meanwhile, South African essential workers are playing their part as heroes who never really had a mission this big to accomplish in such a short space of time and with the limited resources they are forced to work with, it makes one wonder how such a brutality could have been less damaging if the democracy of the country was groomed to a welcoming vision that doesn’t resemble us being the epitome of deprivation in all its forms.

“Cry our beloved country”, a terminology that has not done the much-needed justice especially towards the bellies that depend on the food parcels like a payment cheque owed to their fragile bodies, but yet again when we are surrounded by a democracy that intertwines its corrupted ways with a mere tin of fish and a bag of maize meal, is this not the point where we weep for these beloved people instead?

As I lay my pen to rest and ponder on the words that I’ve just briefly written amid a national setback, it makes me wonder how much of a lockdown have we as South Africans truly endured in our political, social, cultural and economic mishaps than what we are currently facing in our homes?

The truth is, we had a lockdown staring at our faces all this while, the only difference is instead of it jailing us in our personal spaces and threatening our bodies with no remorse, South Africa’s true lockdown began when a sense of purpose was no longer located in the hearts of those seated most high.

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