EDITORIAL: From volte-face on Thabo Bester to Eskom volt farce

One shouldn’t be too surprised by the department of correctional services’ recent U-turn on rapist and murderer Thabo Bester and his Lazarus-like return from the dead. After all, it’s a lowly unit in a government hell-bent on turning the one-eighty into an art form. Even the perennially flip-flopping EFF must be taking notes. 

Just last week the electricity state of disaster — willed into being two months ago by a government all out of ideas — was downgraded to a garden-variety crisis. No material change precipitated the volte-face: President Cyril Ramaphosa’s A-team simply decided that the government could, in fact, use the legislation at its disposal to manage its own incompetence.  

Then there was Eskom. Not a week after announcing the corruption-riven utility wouldn’t have to disclose its irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in its annual financial statements, finance minister Enoch Godongwana was tap-dancing his way out of the quicksand. The Treasury now says it will delay the exemption to allow for input from the auditor-general and Eskom’s auditors. It’s a poor PR comeback that belies the mind-bending absurdity of not consulting either in the first place.  

This is more parody than governance; a tragicomedy of rule. It’s not just that Ramaphosa’s indecision and insipid leadership have finally filtered down to all levels of his administration. It’s indicative of a government that believes it can abdicate responsibility on a whim. It’s hubris of the highest order.