Cape Town - The recent outbursts leading to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Police Minister Bheki Cele losing their cool during public engagements is to be expected, given this administration’s failures and arrogance.
Cele lashed out at Action Society’s Ian Cameron during a recent community meeting in Gugulethu, shouting at him to shut up before ordering him to leave.
The minister had been asked to account for his failure to make communities, particularly townships where mass killings have become the order of the day, safe.
A day later, Gordhan displayed his unwillingness to take responsibility for the mess that is our state-owned entities when the audience at a Wits Business School event demanded that he also account for the so-called nine wasted years he was part of under Jacob Zuma.
He, too, failed to address the issues being raised, and instead resorted to playing the victim of a co-ordinated attack and pointed at those questioning him, even going so far as to insinuate that this may have been part of state capture.
That’s become Gordhan’s catchphrase.
These two incidents expose a government that refuses to account for its dismal performance.
They have got away with so much even in Parliament, they are protected, because that is what the ANC does best – shield its own.
For starters, Cele can barely claim to be in control of the situation in the country when criminals are armed with assault rifles and fear no one.
He cannot convince South Africans that they are safe when our women and children are victims of gender-based violence.
Above all, Cele has no business shouting at people to shut up when he cannot provide real solutions to the country’s policing problems.
Gordhan has, for the longest of times, presented himself as untouchable. It therefore comes as no surprise that he chooses to insult everyone questioning him and his role in the so-called nine wasted years.
Under him, Eskom has, for the first time in history, normalised plunging the country into stage 6 load shedding. Under normal circumstances, he would have long been fired.
Come 2024, the ANC will be in for a big surprise.
Cape Times