[imagesource: Twitter / @Terrific_MMT]

Our politicians are usually spared the wrath of load shedding.

Last week, Eskom suspended stage 2 load shedding from midday until 5PM so that parliament could pass the Appropriation Bill, for example.

One rule for them, and one rule for us.

However, that wasn’t the case with Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, whose SABC The Watchdog interview was interrupted when she was hit by load shedding.

It’s tough not to laugh (the only other option is to cry), and Zulu’s “oh no” really is the cherry on top:

I died a small death 😂😂😂😂#loadshedding #thewatchdog #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/xjZeHEZ96j

— 🌻Theri🌻 (@Terrific_MMT) June 9, 2021

If you watch the full interview (from the 29-minute mark), you’ll see Zulu returns a minute later, admitting that the outage was due to load shedding:

In amongst it all, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that she was being interviewed regarding the highly inefficient rollout of the R350 COVID-19 relief grant.

That monthly grant may soon end, with this from The Sowetan:

…Zulu has admitted that terminating relief programmes, including the R350 Covid-19 social relief of distress (SRD) grant, will increase hunger, exacerbate social and political stress and slow down economic recovery…

“It is expected that with the withdrawal of the last portion of the relief package, whilst in the third wave of the pandemic, more households and individuals will become vulnerable to hunger.”

So ordinary South Africans can kiss that R350 a month goodbye, whilst President Ramaphosa talks about how our ministers, some of whom earn around R2 million a year, are “struggling to make ends meet” as he signs off on a 2,8% salary increase.

Got it.

[source:sowetan]