Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula
CAPE TOWN - The ANC of President Cyril Ramaphosa have become masters in shifting blame, even in cases where the evidence against their failures is overwhelming.
Take Eskom, for example. We need not remind you of some of the most ridiculous excuses they have given the nation for failing to keep the lights on.
One thing is certain: none of the reasons admit to their incompetence.
In this editorial we want to limit ourselves to the tragic deaths of 18 schoolchildren whose lives were cut short when truck driver Sibusiso Siyaya, 28, allegedly drove in the wrong lane for more than a kilometre before his heavy-load vehicle collided with a bakkie carrying the children in uPhongolo, KwaZulu-Natal.
It’s a tragedy that should never have happened, and our condolences go to the grieving families.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula may seem to be justified in blaming the driver, who has been arrested and is facing charges of culpable homicide.
While he should answer to the charges before him, we argue it should not stop there.
Mbalula and local transport officials cannot simply exonerate themselves when they clearly failed to attend to complaints about this stretch of road being a ticking time bomb.
As we stated in our editorial a week or two ago, Mbalula ignored a number of pleas to intervene when a concerned resident wrote to him three years ago – and as recently as August.
The same cannot be said about a complaint by a popular media personality who had informed him of a pothole outside his house.
That is what has become of this current crop of leaders – they act based on who you are, rather than on how serious the issue is.
Now that Mbalula has briefed the nation on the possible causes of this tragedy, he should tell each affected family that he and his officials dropped the ball, and should have been pre-emptive instead of reactive.
He should also apologise to the community for ignoring their pleas and commit that such a tragedy will never again happen under his watch.
Last, he should tender his resignation as an acknowledgement of failing the most basic responsibility of his job: to attend to complaints about the state of our roads.
Of course, none of these will materialise, because the ANC and its cadres only take ordinary citizens seriously when they want votes.
Cape Times