By Howard Feldman
There are days, to quote Moira Rose from the TV series Schitt’s Creek, when I am “positively bedeviled by meetings, et cetera”. Those are the days, when time is not my friend that I wonder if all the meetings were really needed at all. I look at each event and I wonder, in the interest of time, if some should have rather been an email.
Much like South Africa’s “peace mission” to Ukraine and Russia. That too could have been an email.
Or at the very worst, a Zoom call.
It would have saved a whole lot of money and whole lot of embarrassment.
The likely intention of the trip was public relations. Following the debacle over the possible supply of weapons to Russia on the Lady R and the tip toeing around a potential visit by Vladimir Putin to South Africa as part of the BRICS Summit in August, the ANC had some work to do. With the threat of South Africa losing the benefit of the AGOA treaty and the prospect of losing further credibility in the world, the ANC seems to have decided that it would be a great idea to stage a peace mission trip. After all, they likely reasoned, if it worked to give the country credibility in the days of Nelson Mandela, it would do the same this time around.
And so they packed a plane full of witnesses in the form of journalists, added a whole bunch of security personnel and many crates of weapons “just in case.”
With hardly any time for the bread to rise, the delegation left Pretoria in haste, and headed towards Europe. With so little time to prepare, there had to have been those who were unsettled and wondering if there wasn’t something that they were forgetting to do. Like turn off the heating, or switching off the garden hose, or perhaps preparing the documentation that was required for the trip.
What followed, was both funny and tragic. It was laughable, but weep worthy. It was shocking, but expected. And it was embarrassing. Made worse by the response of the South African organisers who – when things started to unravel – levelled accusations of “racism”. As though the very suggestion would cower the Poles into accepting incomplete and incorrect protocols, lest they are called a bad name.
Whilst journalist and security people seethed on board the fateful flight, the President went into Ukraine where he allegedly had to take cover when his friends in Russia sent missiles his way. This was denied and then confirmed. And although we now have no idea what the truth is, what is clear is that it would have been very embarrassing if he were to be taken out by his BFF’s, the Russians.
And quite ironic.
What the trip proved beyond doubt, is how incapable the ANC is. It illustrated how inward focused they are, how disconnected they are to the way the real world works, and how spoiled they have been by a South African population who gives them more free passes than they should.
The result is that through incompetence and arrogance, the ANC have led the country up Schitt’s Creek, at the same time handing out the only paddle to those who seem to deserve it least. The details of the cost, the cargo and the rationale will no doubt be explored over the next few weeks. What remains clear is that the trip should never have happened. The President could have popped onto a Zoom call or sent a beautifully crafted email that could have been written in less time it took to reach cruising altitude.
Moira Rose herself, from the series Schitt’s Creek might well have been speaking of this ridiculous trip to Europe when she said: “What you did, was impulsive, capricious and melodramatic… but it was also wrong.”