The South African political climate has been filled with all kinds of accusations and speculations pending the not so pleasant wrath of the president. It is a limited group of officials who fell victim to this well deserved wrath. In simple terms, they were removed from office for adequate reasons. For some reason the public seems very oblivious to the fact that just like every good company or conglomerate, the national government also needs to function under strict regulations. When Former deputy minister of Health, Nosizwe Madlala-Routledge decided to play according to her own rules early this year and disregarded the wishes of the president, the public moaned and groaned when she was fired. Their sounds were along the lines of unfair dismissal, even the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) tried to convince her to take the presidency to court, how pathetic. Obviously she was smart enough not to take this advice because she knew very well she had nothing to stand on.
Instead of the public reading between the lines and not making the same mistake of supporting loose cannons, they continued cooking up controversies, which of course drifted away just like the axed deputy minister. Just last week the National Prosecuting Authorities Director, Adv. Vusi Pikoli, was suspended for conditions almost the same as those for which Routledge was sacked. There isn’t much noise made about this yet as the masses are still waiting for respective trusted newspapers to publish the “truth.” Is there even truth out there when it comes to politics? Well, this is how things are going to play out: Pikoli is eventually going to be fired because there’s no way that he and the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Brigitte Mabandla can forgive and forget for being disregarded. There’s nothing worse that being undermined by your subordinates. Apparently Pikoli thought since he’s the big shot that’s running the Scorpions, he might as well make decisions without consulting the minister, and those who know will remember that politicians don’t take that lightly.
It seems that people who work for government institutions are under the impression that they can do whatever they want. Private companies don’t take crap and that’s just how it is. Maybe government officials think that as long as they have the support of the people, all is well. The public doesn’t waste time in condemning the president when he fires someone. Without even scanning the underlying factors, you’ll hear some people randomly cursing the president and calling him an autocrat simply because he makes the infamous decisions. It’s ridiculous really that South Africans expect the president to be submissive and indecisive. It seems as though our sense of logical and critical thinking falls right out the window the moment headlines scream the president’s name. It truly defies logic how the public doesn’t think twice about persecuting Mbeki, even when others prove to be way off the ladder in their public capacities, e.g. Jacob Zuma. In politics there are no angels but there’s one thing that we can always count on and that’s logic. Why should you defy your leaders repeatedly and remain in office? Maybe because in South Africa there’s a platform for loose cannons that can always shout conspiracy and character assassinations.
Good Job, Mr. President,
