Da Zille need to do better

Yesterday I was doing a small grocery shop at the Pick ‘n Pay by my house. I walked around, throwing what I needed into the basket, as well as a few things I saw on the way that caught my eye. I didn’t have a list, and I just grabbed whatever looked good. I got to the meat section and saw a young black woman with her two tiny kids. Her children were so damn cute and well behaved that I instantly fell in love with them, which was the biggest mistake I could ever make. Because then they broke my heart.

As I said, their mom was at the meat section, and I realised she had been staring at one packet for a really long time. Being a nosy bastard, I surreptitiously sneak peeked at what she was taking so long to buy. It was a packet of chuck. More specifically, two measly pieces of chuck that would never feed a family of four, not if there was a father, and definitely not if there were any other siblings. It cost R20, and I could see that she could not afford it. She was agonising over what to do, and so was I. I didn’t want to embarrass her by giving her the R20, but I also didn’t want to see her, and her children, suffer.  

I didn’t know anything about her back story, she may have been an absolute bitch and maybe her kids were so obedient because she beat them into submission. I don’t know. I highly doubt it, but even if that was the case, she didn’t deserve that. Nobody does.

Hers is just one tragedy amongst millions that occur in South Africa every day. This is real heartbreak of our young democracy. While the DA continues to attack the ANC for its service delivery, maybe they should think about getting their ship in order first. People in glass houses and all that shit. The DA wants to win the national election in 2017. If that’s the plan, then they really need to get their asses in gear and actually start providing meaningful services and job opportunities for the country’s poorest citizens. In politics, it’s very easy to attack another party for poor policy or failure to deliver. However, it becomes a lot harder to do this when the opposition is doing everything right. No more refugee gaffes on twitter (Helen Zille should actually think about giving up on twitter altogether. The “cool” factor it gives her is outweighed by all the negative publicity she creates herself by being arrogant and obstinate), no more open toilet sagas, no more TBWA tender corruption. Simply make the lives of the poor better, and the rest will take care of itself.