Time for the top dogs to board #RamaRail and invest in #RamaPhutures
One of the more amusing headlines last week was one on BizNews, to wit "Parliament keen to see Jooste in orange overalls as 8 execs implicated in Steinhoff fraud". No doubt many of those who read this could not suppress the entertaining thought that they would like to see various present and past members of Parliament sweating it out in orange overalls alongside Markus Jooste doing whatever it is that prisoners do these days. (Presumably the post office no longer needs that many mailbags.) However, we all know that this is unlikely to happen soon. For some people in high places, the rocks and wheels of justice grind slowly, if at all.
In the meantime, it would be pleasing to see a couple of thousand of our leaders take a leaf out of Cyril Ramaphosa's book and go for a ride on a train. Plenty of rides, in fact. They could decide that from now on they will all use only trains and buses to get anywhere. No aeroplanes, no helicopters, no blue-light brigades, no 4x4s, no ubers, no motor vehicles of any description (other than minibus taxis). No VIP bodyguards. No Gautrain. And definitely not Rovos Rail.
The African National Congress (ANC) has always been long on struggle and strong on solidarity, so this would be a means of demonstrating solidarity with those who struggle with public transport. Our top thousands could call their campaign #RamaRail.
President Ramaphosa evidently had quite an adventure. According to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, a stone which hit the driver of another train on the head caused trains behind to back up. Then the president had to be taken through "speed restrictions" because travel at the normal speed was ruled out thanks to the "poor condition" of the infrastructure, which is the result of "ongoing and sustained attack by thugs", who help themselves to cables, metal, and whatever.
Never mind, our president gamely smiled through it all and cheered everyone up with one of his famous "period of renewal" promises. Perhaps he was relieved that nobody set fire to his train, that it was not crashed into, derailed, or hijacked, and that he was not one of the abnormally high number of injuries or fatalities that occur on the South African rail network.