That Sinking Feeling: Cartoons for May and June, 2020

June 27, 2020 / stidyatkusane / 2 Comments

SUMMARY:

The public’s faith in the ANC government’s ability to manage the Covid-19 crisis – initially high – began to fray as signs of disarray appeared within the party. The most striking example of this was over the cigarette sales ban. Having announced it would be lifted, President Cyril Ramaphosa was over-ruled, a few days, later by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosana Dlamini-Zuma, who insisted the ban would stay, leaving many wondering just who was in charge? With Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, complaining publicly that the government was losing millions a month in lost revenue it could ill-afford as a result of the ban, some journalists and opposition parties went so far as to suggest that Dlamini-Zuma had connections to the illegal cigarette trade.

There was even speculation that the radicals within the ANC, led by Dlamini-Zuma and Ace Magashule, were using the pandemic as a pretext for pursuing power.

With public goodwill evaporating, as what started off as a health emergency increasingly turned in to a matter of law and order, many South Africans were anxious to hear what President Cyril Ramaphosa would have to say in his next address to the nation. In attempting to allay these fears, the clearly tired president said the Covid-19 lock-down had achieved its objectives so far, and had saved many lives, and as a result it was now possible to adopt a slightly more flexible approach depending on where high levels of infection occur.

He announced that the easing of restrictions would start at the end of May with the metropolitan areas of Gauteng, Cape Town and eThekwini the most likely to remain at Level 4.

More than 40 000 people were expected to die from the corona-virus in South Africa by November, one million will be effected and the country is unlikely to have enough ICU beds at the peak of the pandemic according to projections by Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize, and members of a Covid-19 Modelling Consortium. The briefing came after intense criticism about the apparent lack of transparency over the modelling and other Covid-19 data.

With the easing of restrictions on religious gatherings the government appeared to abandon all pretence it was following the science or acting rationally. It also showed it was remarkably susceptible to pressure groups with many people questioning the need for the continuing ban on cigarette sales or why churches should be allowed to open their doors to up to 500 people when other organisations – such as restaurants and hair salons – couldn’t?

In a scathing rebuke to a government that postures as democratic-minded and rights conscious, the Pretoria High Court ruled that the regulations enforced upon South Africans under Level 3 and 4 of the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 corona-virus were “unconstitutional and invalid”. The court gave the government 14-days to amend the regulations that were still in play under Level 3.

In the wake of the global Black Lives Movement, triggered by the killing of George Floyd in the United States, a social media furore laid bare the experiences of black Africans at some of South Africa’s most celebrated private schools at the hands of both staff and pupils. The anti-racist account, “yousilenceweamplify” on Instagram, set up for past and current students at Herschel Girls High School in Cape Town quickly spread and prompted hash-tags denouncing racism from across the country, including Pietermaritzburg.

Without naming dates or specific security measures, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the grooming and personal care business will be allowed to open soon, along with sit-down restaurants, accommodation establishments, conference facilities, theatres, casinos, non-contact sport and contact sport (but only for training). He warned that as the country opens up the risk of infection “inevitable increases”.

This was followed by a warning from Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, that South Africa was staring a debt crisis “in the eyes” as soon as 2024 if the country’s spending and economic outlook did not change dramatically.

An ashen-faced Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, could offer no green shoots during his emergency budget presentation, warning instead that South Africa would record its worst economic performance since the Great Depression with a projected contraction of 7.2%.

Invoking the image of a hippo’s wide-open jaws – to symbolise the gap between income and expenditure – the finance minister said that closing this gap was the Herculean task South Africa faced…

Caught Between a Covid-19 Rock and a Hard Place: Cartoons for March and April, 2020

May 2, 2020 / stidyatkusane / 2 Comments

In the same week it was announced that South Africa was in recession, King Zwelithini tried to lever support for a vanity project of his. Claiming, somewhat dubiously, to have the support of Britain’s Prince Charles, Zwelithini announced at the opening of the KZN Legislature that he wanted a dam – not just any old dam but the biggest and longest in Africa.

What he didn’t explain was how he expected it to be funded given the cash-strapped state of the country’s economy and the burgeoning national debt.

The World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a global pandemic as the virus, unknown to world health officials three-months ago, rapidly spread to more than 120 000 people across the world. The growing crisis saw the rand crash through R17/$ and South African shares plummet as scenes of market mayhem played out across the globe.

In the midst of this carnage, Eskom chose to announce it was once again implementing Stage Four load-shedding putting the already ailing South African economy under even greater strain.

With Italy seeing 475 deaths in one day – the highest daily toll in one country throughout the entire pandemic – World Health Organisation head Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Africa “to prepare for the worst and prepare today”.

His views were backed up by Professor Saloshini Naidoo, the head of public health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who said she could not emphasise enough the importance of behaviour change to prevent a wide scale and unprecedented spread of the virus in South Africa.

“These next two weeks are vitally important for people to adhere to the president’s recommendations and ensure that there is little to no contact with others so we can flatten the curve,” she warned.

Following the example of numerous other countries around the world, South Africa went in to full lock-down at midnight, 26^th March. The drastic measures, aimed at slowing the spread of the Covid-19 virus, included a complete prohibition on non-essential movement, a ban on liquor sales, a closure of public spaces, community halls and religious premises, all under penalty of prosecution.

The first week of the Covid-19 lock-down saw many South Africans already beginning to feel the pinch, with many of the self-employed fast running out of cash. Their anxiety levels were not eased by the warning from Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize, that they must not expect the increase in cases and deaths to slow immediately as a result of people staying at home. He added that the lock-down may need to be extended.

With the rate of infection from the Covid-19 soaring to unprecedented levels in the United States, President Donald Trump continued to bluster, misspeak and ad-lib his way through the crisis. Having earlier clung to a narrative of normality (It is a Democrat “hoax”, it is just a flu), he had been obliged to make an embarrassing U-Turn and now sought to transfer the blame for the pandemic elsewhere. He found another convenient scapegoat in the form of the World Health Organisation who he sharply criticised for being too focused on China and issuing bad advice during the outbreak.

While President Cyril Ramaphosa’s – and his Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize’s – political capital soared over their handling of the Covid-19 crisis in South Africa, the same could not be said of his grand-standing, thuggish, Police Minister, Bheki Cele. With many reports of police brutality emerging, he was criticised for, among other things, allowing his personal obsession with alcohol to lead to unconstitutional and criminal action by security force members.

In an address to the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the gradual easing of Covid-19 lock-down restrictions from the beginning of May although public gatherings and movements would still be highly restricted and some parts of the country would remain in hard lock-down. The easing of restrictions meant the country would move from its current strict Level 5 lock-down to a slightly relaxed Level 4.

The Elections and After: Cartoons for May and June, 2019

July 6, 2019 / stidyatkusane / 2 Comments

SUMMARY:

With only a few days to go before the May 8 general election, all South Africa’s political parties were in a final push to woo citizens. Among those visiting KwaZulu-Natal were President Cyril Ramaphosa, former president Jacob Zuma and former deputy president Kgalema Mothlanthe.

As expected, the elections were won by the ANC, although the official results – which saw the party down to a 57% share of the votes from 62% in the 2014 elections – underlined the huge task which faces President Cyril Ramaphosa as he tries to push through his reformist agenda. For their part, the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, failed to make any gains while the radical Left, Economic Freedom Front, led by firebrand Julius Malema, was in third place – up four per cent from 2014. Reflecting a world-wide growth in nationalism, the Afrikaner-rights FF+ and the Zulu-orientated IFP also made substantial gains.

With the elections over, speculation next turned to what changes President Ramaphosa would make to his cabinet and whether he would cut the number of Ministries. Hopes were also expressed that he would use the pending cabinet reshuffle as an excuse to get rid of some of his more controversial ministers such as Bathabile Dlamini and Nomvula Mukonyane.

Cyril Ramaphosa was duly elected unopposed as president by the National Assembly. In a unifying speech in Parliament he promised to be “a President for all South Africans and not just the African National Congress”.

His message of inclusivity was not, unfortunately, picked up by all members of the party. In his inaugural address to the provincial legislature, the newly appointed premier of KZ-N, Sihle Zikalala, declined to pay tribute to the new official opposition, the IFP, by neglecting to mention that party’s previous premiers when he praised previous ANC premiers..

On the 29^th May, President Cyril Ramaphosa finally announced his new cabinet in the process downsizing his number of ministers from 35 under Zuma to 28.The big surprise was his appointment of Good Party leader, Patricia de Lille, who had quit the DA after months of acrimony, as Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure.

Underlining the huge problems facing Ramaphosa, was the news that South Africa’s economy had shrunk by more than three percent in the first quarter of 2019 – as load-shedding, a strike on the gold mines and a dire lack of investment hit growth. In KZN there was another fiery weekend on the roads with 17 truck-and-rigs being torched on the N3 between Johannesburg and Durban. To date over 200 people have been killed, 1400 vehicles damaged and R1,2billion lost as result of these ongoing incidents – losses the country can ill-afford with its economy under huge economic strain.

The divisions within the ANC once again came under the spotlight when it was announced that the ANC would launch a probe, chaired by Kgalema Mothlanthe, in to claims that its Secretary-General, Ace Magashule, was involved in the formation of the African Transformation Movement (ATM) – a rival political party – ahead of the previous month’s election. Former President Jacob Zuma’s confidante, Bishop Timothy Ngobo, who had aggressively campaigned for the new party, to which Zuma had also been linked, immediately rubbished the probe as being a “witch-hunt”.

Delivering his State of the Nation (SONA) speech in parliament, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a number of measures to grow the economy, tackle poverty and unemployment and fight corruption. Whether the ambitious targets he set – such as halving violent crime in the next 10-years and creating two million jobs for youth over the same period – are achievable remains to be seen.

The following week, his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, confirmed he would testify before the Zondo Commission in to State Capture even though he believed it is “prejudiced” against him and “lacks requisite impartiality”. According to his lawyer the former president “can’t wait to attend…he is relishing the moment.”