We're into November with the third South African democratic census under our belts.
Or is it?
As one of the homes overlooked during the previous census, I have no doubt that many families in SA are feeling just a little miffed and neglected. If yours is one, I do hope you will make the effort to ring the call centre and notify them. Last time around, no such service existed.
However, because I have a tenant and because I had no intention of inviting a complete stranger into our home, I rang asking that the form be dropped off for me to fill in overnight, so that I could confer with said tenant if necessary.
I still have no idea why the forms were not delivered to post boxes in areas where boxes exist. Many areas have plenty of pamphlets dropped weekly.
I was assured politely that the instruction would be conveyed to Durban's command centre.
Ha! Ha! Clearly that instruction was forever lost in the ether, cyberspace or cloud. It took a further fortnight before two youngsters were beating the gate down and shouting at me from the kerb.
This is a habit I find particularly irritating. If you are denied access by virtue of an electric or locked gate, leave a note (that's what God made post boxes for). I f the gate is unlocked and you want to see me, open the damn thing, close it behind you and come down to the house.
Because if you think I'm about to clamber up those steps for the privilege of a total stranger's company, think again! (My sore hip has been making me grumpy lately...)
We have a second gate which, in effect, could be presumed to be there to protect poor unknown souls from the vicious bites of our slavering guard dogs.
Actually, they are dachshunds and despite the noise they make, they've never yet done anyone any real harm. The lower gate is really intended to keep the dogs safely behind bars. Still, it's always nice to seem to care about the welfare of intruders, isn't it?
I despair about the census questionnaire.
The appliance questions appeared to deal with market research rather than needs, but perhaps some retail organisation subsidised the census. We can all boil water one way or another. What matters is whether we have access to potable water (without needing to trek for an hour to carry it home), firewood, matches and a waterproof, fireproof pan.
If the state doesn't know the answers to those things by now, it never will! Eskom should be able to provide info on who is stealing what electricity, as well!
Before I received my form, a friend who had already done her duty explained the income section to me. She's 64, lives alone, but subsidises the needs of her almost teenage granddaughter, who is confined to a wheelchair.
I was shocked to hear that she'd checked an income box labelled 'R12 000 – R25 000/month'. Between you and me, there's a vast difference between the two...easily more than one class. The state was not interested in whether she works, half- or full-day, has a pension or investments of any sort.
Although she does work half-day, that clearly that won't go on forever (well, it's probably clear to you and me). Since she's in a scarce-skills field, there may be no one to replace her when she gives up and she also claims that because further regular study becomes compulsory for everyone in her sector next January, many of her peers over 50 plan to kick the working habit rather than be forced to comply.
These are people already watching the horizon with jaded eye for an excuse to retire; the last thing they want to do now is start studying again.
And, in case you feel that cannot be important to the country, the sector is pharmacy, which must surely tie in with the state's ultimate NHI plan, AIDS treatment et al? An opportunity for learning something really important to success has, in my opinion, been missed by a long shot!
Transport is also, in my opinion, one of South Africa's most controversial issues.
In recent months, Gauteng has welcomed the Gautrain, the Rea vaya and Santaco's new airline. Santaco has taken over the management of Rea vaya. When Rea vaya was recently on strike for eight weeks, it is said that no one missed it.
Are you noticing a picture emerge? Should any organisation have so much of a monopoly in any industry?
The census was a perfect vehicle for learning how many people travel between different points twice daily, what mode of transport they use and which they would most like to use if given a choice of public transport mode.
Instead, I'm fast reaching the point where I believe no one cares at all what is wanted or needed in any province by way of public transport. How could Sanral have got its plans for the Gauteng tolling system fees so wrong? It gave not a damn what people can afford.
Huge amounts of money are being spent in good faith and unfortunately, many of us have much faith in the results! In fact, those left to pay the new tolling fees (the middle classes and business) are precisely those people who have less faith in government to begin with.
Lousy PR exercise! How can anyone garner more votes by bankrupting those who feed its system?
Then we come to the interesting rumours about enumerators sitting on street corners erasing census info and inserting new answers, apparently with the authority of the okies in charge. I quote from an e-mail I received from a concerned citizen:
"Attached is [photographic] evidence of a Stats SA employee with eraser in hand, erasing information on people's forms. He was sitting at the [boom] security hut at Erasmus Road, Edenglen, Edenvale. When I asked him what he was doing and why he was erasing, he said his supervisor told him to do this."
Long story short: local residents were shocked, as were police. The supervisor was called and contacted her superior, who refused telephonically to give his name. Picture the discontent, which is utterly wasted on people who don't toyi-toyi (but write e-mails).
Only one question is pertinent: who, in government, doesn't know that official documentation should always (and I stress 'always') be completed in black pen? The moment many of us heard that pencil was required, we clammed up, simply due to that little discrepancy.
It is not how things should be done!
Then, of course, in KZN, enumerators have been arrested for refusing to return questionnaires to their superiors unless they are given an increase on the R5 000 payment offered in their now-signed contracts. Hell, the ink on those contracts is barely dry! How on earth can people have salary issues?
Simply: they supposed the job would be a piece of old takkie and they found out differently. Having done it once myself (also during a low economic period) I know how thankless a task enumerating a census is; it's one long PR exercise from the first to the last questionnaire returned and listening to every last opinion about the state's management performance.
Let's be honest about it: if they sent the enumerators around with tape recorders, the state would learn everything it needs so badly to know about the state of the nation! Instead, it's in the process of dreaming on. Perhaps the census was never meant to be more than a short-term job creation project.
Or perhaps the ANC really doesn't know which direction to take.
As Moeletsi Mbeki put it last month, "The ANC government does not know what South Africa's core national interests are. One day it is looking for foreign direct investment – the next day it is interfering with foreigners investing in the country."
Moeletsi believes that the opening of our trade markets by Trevor Manuel (as the original trade and industry minister) is the cause of our millions of lost jobs. That our infrastructure breakdown, together with capital flight, enabled by the same relaxing of trade controls could see our banks follow those of the US and next, the EU (take a lesson here for SADC). He worries about what will happen to the retirement savings (pensions) of millions. I don't; I'm already panicking!
Studio M's bottom line: I'm reading Great South African Teachers, a heart warming, rather than intellectual exercise. The book was compiled by Professor Jonathon Jansen and two of his students at the University of the Free State. It makes clear that Bantu education could not stifle great teachers. Thousands of previously disadvantaged individuals took every advantage offered, gained degrees and good jobs by virtue of learning the one thing that really mattered to their futures: that hard work gets us places! More money won't fix the present deficiencies in education; better role models could.
