RIGHT TO WORK
Gordhan doffs his hat to a blind man while miners stumble in the darkness
Minister’s budget speech affirmed an economic system that threatens the livelihoods of illegal excavators, writes Christopher Rutledge
Why, shortly after the evening I told you about, I discovered something. When I would leave a blind man on the sidewalk to which I had convoyed him, I used to tip my hat to him. Obviously the hat tipping wasn’t intended for him, since he couldn’t see it. To whom was it addressed? To the public. After playing my part, I would take the bow. Not bad, eh?" These are the words of Jean-Baptiste, the key character in the Albert Camus novel, The Fall, which explores the existential crises of a successful lawyer who comes to see himself as duplicitous and hypocritical. Jean-Baptiste initially resists the realisation that he has lived hypocritically and selfishly. He argues with himself over his prior acts of kindness, but quickly discovers this is an argument he cannot win. He starts to slowly realise that his acts of kindness were in fact tropes and acts meant to soothe his own ego and conscience. It was this tale that came to mind as I watched Pravin Gordhan deliver his medium-term budget ...
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