Do I live in the same country as President Zuma?

This week, while addressing delegates attending a South African Local Government Association conference in Midrand, President Zuma said that no country in the world has achieved as much as South Africa has in the past 18 years.

He was praising his government colleagues and associates for the exceptionally good work that they had performed over the years and, in illustrating his point, said, for instance that:
• More than 2,4-million homes have been built to provide adequate shelter for about 10-million people;
• More than six million people now have access to running water while millions more have access to electricity and together, millions of South African receive free basic services, which while rudimentary, have improved their lives significantly.

He went on to say that the social grants had provided money for the poorest of the poor, that pensioners were now getting some support from government and that certain public health care facilities had improved access to primary healthcare, so that much of the population is much better off now than ever before.

He's quite correct and in many cases, the government does seem to be improving a lot of the poor people of this nation.

What he doesn't tell you though is the R50-billion has to be spent on repairing the houses that were so badly built they are in danger of falling down. Or that that money was lost through corrupt tenders in a process of grotesque self-enrichment.

Or that the water infrastructure is so badly damaged that South Africa will need to spend at least R670-billion over the next ten years to take care of basic water needs and is facing a funding gap of at least R338-billion.

Or that the South Africans are so desperate and so dissatisfied with the government's performance that widespread service delivery protests break out spontaneously on a daily basis.

Or that the public healthcare sector is in such a shambles that doctors at the Southern Hemisphere's biggest hospital, the Chris Hani Baragwanath, are trying to perform delicate operations such as Caesarean sections using their cell phones for light because there's no electricity in the hospital and the standby generators don't work either.

Or that more than R800-million was under-spent in five provinces by the health departments even though more than R4-billion had been allocated to improve them.

Or that the roads network has been so poorly maintained that there are potholes sufficiently large for children to drown in or use as paddling pools.

The few references I've pointed to show me that South Africa does not have a world class government that has achieved more than any other in 18 years. And my list is random too.

Service delivery protests aren't localised to one particular region or another either. Durban's N2 highway was blocked near Umgeni Road on Tuesday while, on the same day 26 people were arrested in Touws River outside Cape Town during another service delivery protest and in Gauteng, outside Lenasia, the R554 was blockaded by angry residents ranting about the state of poor service delivery in that province.

So what laurels does President Jacob Zuma and his Cabinet rest upon now?

And I haven't even touched on the state of education, the lack of delivery of text books to schools, the poor performance of employed teachers, the extent of corruption in our police force and the inability of detectives to even take down an accurate statement.

If President Jacob Zuma thinks South Africa has achieved more than any other country in the world then I'm afraid he is gravely mistaken for the facts do not equate with his assertions.

Crime levels are still unspeakable high, while the degree of internal corruption in government is so hopelessly widespread that even lowly police officials rely on paltry R50 backhanders to try and make ends meet. I know, they tried to convince me to pay them.

For me the root of the problem lies with President Jacob Zuma - and thousands like thousands him who are employed by the state - who is simply deluding himself by pretending that everything is just rosy in his breadbasket nation.

Examine the facts and South Africa weaves itself closer to becoming a basket case rather than a breadbasket. That is a sad indictment for government has failed to govern and failed to admit its failed either.

I have little doubt that President Zuma will manage to achieve a second term of office for himself once Mangaung has come and gone but I sincerely hope, before that, that he will rub the mush out of his eyes.

But I doubt it somehow: for after all there there are none so blind as those that will not see.