Can the DA just go into quarantine for a couple of months and come out when the pandemic is over?
Eish, what the hell have these guys been thinking these past two weeks?
The City of Cape Town especially, with their “lockdown camp” for the homeless in Strandfontein.
Dan Plato, Zahid Badroodien, JP Smith and co. must not know where to hide their faces.
Seriously, how many blunders can you have on one project:
* They take the Strandfontein community’s sports field and convert it into a homeless village without consulting residents.
* The site, which is near the beach, is isolated, exposed to the cold and wind.
* Corralling 1500 homeless people in close quarters - some of them sick, alcohol and drug addicts, criminals and gangsters - is a grievous mistake. So far, at least one death and one rape have been reported.
* Instead of preventing the spread, Doctors Without Borders says overcrowding conditions in the tents only increase the risk of transmission of Covid-19 and TB.
* The site has been likened to a concentration camp (it does look like one, no wonder the authorities are desperate to keep the media away) with sorry-looking faces pressed up against gated fencing. Inhabitants complain they are being held against their will and men who claim to have “escaped” say conditions inside are worse than jail.
Homeless people at Strandfontein shelter shout at law enforcement officers. Picture: Phando Jikelo/African News Agency (ANA)
The City has a woeful track record for its treatment of the homeless - who are expected to pay fines if they break by-laws.
The last time the local DA government rounded up the city’s homeless like this, it was ahead of the 2010 world cup.
They dumped all those mense in a “temporary relocation area” nicknamed Blikkiesdorp.
That was 10 years ago.
Blikkiesdorp temporary relocation area in Delft. File photo
And this is exactly what the Strandfontein community is fearing: what will
happen to this camp after lockdown?
Let’s hope the City pulls the plug on this tented circus and finds alternative accommodation sooner rather than later.
Not a smart idea at all.
Speaking of smart DA ideas, acting party leader John Steenhuisen this week unveiled the “Smart Lockdown”, their answer to government’s lockdown.
Look, as the opposition to the ruling party, they couldn’t very well join the rest of the country in applauding Cyril Ramaphosa’s National Command Council for taking decisive and necessary measures to curb the spread of the virus.
No, they need to stay relevant, they needed to go one better on Ramaphosa’s “dumb lockdown” by coming up with a “smart lockdown”.
Never mind that their plan comes three weeks too late.
SMART ALECK: Acting DA leader John Steenhuisen
To be fair, it is a sound proposal. However, not much different to what government has set out to do:
* Rollout of testing, tracking, tracing, and treatment coupled with transparent reporting of data - done.
* Build on healthcare
capacity - not new.
* Enabling and strict enforcement of the wearing of protective face masks in all public areas - good idea.
* Rollout of public education campaign: hygiene, diagnosis, handling. This includes health protocols for public spaces and workplaces - done.
* Assistance to high-risk groups to continue isolating where possible - sure.
* Strict border control - done.
* Borrowing R300 billion from the IMF or World bank to: support small business, increase Sassa payments by R1000 and; invest in healthcare equipment and supplies - why not?
Another key difference is implementing four different lockdown stages “relative to the infection rate for every sector of the economy and society”.
It will work like load shedding, the DA says. As if that is any reassurance.
It sounds like Steenhuisen and co. have put some thought into it.
ROLLOUT: Coronavirus screening in the communities
But with their smart aleck approach, they’re not likely to win support.
“Managing Covid-19 will require a marathon, not a sprint,” the proposal says.
Spoken like the DA has had years of experience dealing with Covid-19 outbreaks.
And the timing of it is just so off. There is no election on the horizon.
This is no time to divide and confuse the public with politicking.
Right now, South Africans need to unite and support government in the fight against a common enemy.
taariq.halim@inl.co.za