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Many moons ago, when COVID-19 first swept South Africa and we went into national lockdown, the evening addresses from President Cyril Ramaphosa were must-watches.

When he suffered that infamous mask gaffe after delivering an address in April of last year, much of the country rallied behind him, noting how he looked like he hadn’t slept properly in weeks, and yet still had the ability to laugh at himself.

Fast forward to today, which is our 434th day of living under some form of lockdown, and patience has worn thin on a number of fronts.

Not just for the general public, either, with journalists now taking potshots at Sunday’s ‘family meeting’. To begin, here’s News24’s political editor, Qaanitah Hunter, on why these ‘family meetings’ have gone off the rails:

South Africans were subjected to yet another “family meeting” this past Sunday and, if anything, these events have become more indicative that this family is dysfunctional…

We have also become accustomed to the lack of detail in Ramaphosa’s address, the non-existent explanations of why certain decisions are taken, and the disregard for politically inconvenient issues plaguing the country.

In other words, the proverbial “father” lectures the family and some of the kids nod and listen while others disregard him entirely.

The only reason I tuned in on Sunday was to see if Ramaphosa would address the ongoing scandal surrounding Health Minister Zweli Mkhize and his pals at Digital Vibes.

Because it’s kind of a big deal when our own Health Minister, in the middle of a deadly pandemic, is involved in large-scale corruption.

But no, not even a peep on the matter from Ramaphosa, despite what he has said in previous ‘family meetings’:

…he made a big fuss about how the SIU would save the day when it came to corruption related to the procurement of personal protective equipment.

What happened to the updates he promised to get from the SIU on the PPE corruption? What happened to the so-called fusion centre that was meant to put looters in jail?

Now he wants the “family” to shush and not ask about the problematic “uncle”, because there is an ongoing SIU investigation.

It would be grand if a journalist could ask a follow-up question, but these are not really meetings, because it’s a one-way street.

Once Ramaphosa is done, he pops on his mask and that’s the end of that.

Hunter ends by saying “I don’t know if you can tell, but I am over it.” She’s not alone on that front.

Turning our attention to TimesLIVE, and columnist Jonathan Jansen is even less forgiving, saying “Cyril’s speech was a pack of insulting lies”.

Jansen said that had our president “been given a truth serum before he’d started it, this is what he would have said”:

The experts are right, we have one of the lowest vaccine rollouts in the world, with the result that fellow citizens are even running to Namibia and Zimbabwe to get their shots before coming back home. Do you realise how embarrassing that is to us as government?

…Our children attend the most elite private and public schools in SA, while some of yours still attend schools with pit latrines. Of course, we can easily fix the remaining 2,000 dangerous holes in the ground, but we simply don’t care…

Slow, drip-drip rollout of the vaccines? You are the problem. You don’t wear masks. You don’t socially distance. You go to weddings and funerals (how dare you!). You stay out late at night. You even drink alcohol. It’s you, not us.

I told you he wasn’t in the forgiving mood.

Jansen goes on to ridicule Ramaphosa for avoiding the Digital Vibes scandal, and the ANC’s utterly impotent ‘step-aside rule’:

I should fire the minister of health on the spot for the sake of the country because he is certainly not going to “step aside” in the face of the crisis…

But the truth is, I really don’t care and so do not expect me to talk about the elephant in the room or allow journalists Q&A time after the family meeting because they will surely make mincemeat out of the pachyderm. Avoidance is better than cure.

Another week, another ‘family meeting’, another lecture about our behaviour, whilst politicians in high places chow public funds like pigs at a trough, without a care in the world about truly being held accountable.

Consider this – the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is currently probing alleged corrupt PPE contracts worth R14,2 billion, which is close to half of the money spent by our government on PPE procurement.

Think of the healthcare workers, and members of the public, who lost their lives because we blew at least half of the funds allocated to something this vital.

Think of what we hear coming out of the Zondo Commission every day, which will have cost taxpayers somewhere in the region of R1 billion when it wraps up, and not a single politician is currently behind bars.

It’s just really, honestly, overwhelmingly tiring, man.

So Cyril, please excuse the country if we have grown a little tired of the same speech about accountability every few weeks.

[sources:news24&timeslive]