BIG READ: The heaps are smaller, but trash still clogs the corridors of power
‘The Unlikely Mr Rogue (and me)’ is the story of Ivan Pillay, the ‘Sars rogue unit’ and the damage wrought by rubbish ‘leadership’. Evelyn Groenink writes about the anger that inspired her book
January 2021. There are hospital beds in parking basements. People lie on stretchers suffocating, waiting in vain for a lifeline. “My friend’s friend has just been found dead in her apartment,” goes a tweet. A representative from the Funeral Practitioners Association reports that the industry is running out of coffins.
It is three months after The Unlikely Mr Rogue was launched. The book ends with a description of the first wave of Covid-19, and the first failure of the broken SA state to deliver hospital supplies and social assistance to communities who can’t isolate without starving. The first anger vis à vis those who were ordering fake scooter ambulances while arresting citizens for walking has materialised already. “For every politician, official, business et cetera, who looted money for health, water, housing, education, for every one of you who mismanaged, you are the reason the poor are more vulnerable to the effects of coronavirus,” I quote broadcaster and author Red...
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