The government
has not explained exactly why it was necessary to hire a cohort of health
professionals from Cuba. These folks arrived to much fanfare quite late one night
this week and were whisked off to a fortnight of quarantine. It would be
interesting to know if that is what they expected and how they will pass the
time without reading material and TV channels in Spanish. The last time we
hired a team of foreign doctors they were not thrilled with the rural settings
to which they were posted and then there were complaints that neither side
could understand what the other was saying. What makes the current incident
even more puzzling is that reportedly this country is awash in under utilised
and even unemployed local medics. The cost to the nation of this “selfless and
generous gesture by our Cuban brethren”, to quote President Cyril, will be more
than R2 million per brother. This figure doubtless allows for some cadre commissions.
The medics themselves could collect as little as $1000 each for their stint, as
it is well known that this doctor export program is a great foreign exchange earner
for the Cuban government.
Coming down
from a stringent and vindictive five-week Lockdown during which the authorities
even tightened the conditions, will not be simple. The complicated, inconsistent
and economically suicidal multi-level plan began to decay even before it
officially came into effect today. A survey has determined that we all now
understand and try to eliminate, as far as practical, interpersonal infection
opportunities. The government and indeed the people are no longer much concerned
about COVID-19. However, the former is keen to keep and grow the control they
have enjoyed while the latter just want to get back to normal as soon as
possible. We are quite done with being told what we may not do, eat or drink
and are very restive and increasingly rebellious. And now there is a night time
curfew. The government is getting scared of us. This is why so many new soldiers
have been put on the streets.
It is clear
to everyone that President Cyril is no longer in charge of the country and the one-time
presidential wannabe, NDZ in effect now outranks Cyril who is being kept in
order to provide diversion and light relief. Unfortunately, her camp is home to
some of the more clueless and racist ministers. But they are corrupt. The
decision to renege on the president’s promise to allow the sale of tobacco
product at this level of lockdown has preserved the very useful cashflows being
generated by the cigarette (and probably the booze) smuggling operations. The
cadres are pleased. The taxman this week acknowledged a revenue of shortfall of
R1.7bn because of the ban on legal sales of these “sins”.
The move to a
notionally more lenient lockdown level has delivered the very welcome concession
of permitting outdoor exercising (including the family dogs) for a short period
every day. It is not explained why a time restriction is necessary as it forces
all the exercisers out on the roads at the same moment that there are more cars
about. Interestingly, the permitted exercising area is a circle of 5km radius (presumably)
centred on one’s home, which absent shorelines and the like, permits a route almost
as far as a standard marathon. But few will manage that in the 3 permitted
hours! Take-away hot cooked food is now available but not from supermarkets and
only for delivery not collection. Job creation I suppose.
The trickiest
job tackled by your government this week was deciding which language to use
when announcing the return to school dates. For some unknown reason they chose
not to use the one understood (if not spoken regularly) by virtually everyone
listening. However once that was sorted out it is clear that a huge effort had
been put into trying to draw up a schedule. It doesn’t help that several hundred school
premises have been savagely vandalised during the lockdown and that the
distance learning already in use at privileged schools will never be available
for the vast majority of South Africa’s children. For most of them 2020 will
likely forever be a gap in their education.
For others,
the awarding of the Premiership to Liverpool is a dubious idea.
James
Greener
Workers Day
2020
