Umm Muhammed Umar

Just weeks after having lifted the COVID-19 State of Disaster, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced, once again, a National State of Disaster late on Monday, following the devastating floods in KwaZulu Natal and also in the Eastern Cape. More than 450 people have died, with scores still missing, due to the floods and mudslides. Infrastructure has been ruined, and the economic costs run into billions of Rand. political analyst Professor Andre Duvenhage discussed the situation with Radio Islam.

Professor Duvenhage said that history, in the context of national disasters tells us a number of things; firstly, that governments like power. He said that there were huge dangers in the government’s exercise of power within the framework of the National Disaster legislation. He added that we already knew this with the misuse of finances, and corruption, during COVID. Duvanhage said, “and you know, earlier this morning, I have seen a video where the vehicles of eThekwini Municipality were taking away emergency things that were provided for people in trouble.” He commented that while President Ramaphosa had announced a national state of disaster, and we needed to act accordingly, the problem was with the implementation of this. He said, “what happened in the COVID allows serious concerns about the government’s ability to deal with this matter in a proper way.”

Prof Duvanhage said that the weak state concept needed to be understood, where the state sets high level goals with the complete inability to execute them. He said that the biggest concern now was the South African economy running into trouble, which has been the situation for the past decade. He said, “We know what happened less than a year ago with the violence, which was a rebellion coming from within the ANC against the Ramaphosa government, which had a negative value of something like R50 billion and more than 300 people killed.” He added, “we have seen that no legal action was taken in any way, and no culprits were identified because they were within the framework of ANC.” He added that the ordinary citizen was concerned about the government’s values, morals, and ability to deal with the situation in a proper manner.

The President had mentioned that the Solidarity Fund would be used in KwaZulu Natal, when the assumption was that the Fund was established to solely deal with economic repercussions of the COVID 19 pandemic. There were fears that there, therefore, would not be sufficient funds in the event of another outbreak. Prof Duvanhage stressed that there was not a lot of money available in any case. He said, “They had to borrow from the International Monetary Fund, and others to support these initiatives. And I think the same is going to be applicable with the disaster in KZN and the Eastern Cape.” He said that there were rumours, from a year ago, that companies like Toyota were thinking about leaving the country and establishing headquarters elsewhere. Duvanage added, “This was because of the inability of government to deal with challenges, and to operate in terms of proper values, and all the legal and administrative and other obstacles, that is connecting to the line of corruption, which many people are referring to as state capture.“