The Finger

On the government's coat of arms should be a finger raised in the universal rude gesture. 

I brought an elderly lady from an old age home to the nearby state hospital. They call it a hospital but it looks like a squat in a thoroughly disreputable neighbourhood.

She spent an entire day, mostly waiting.  A specialist, due in the afternoon, had not arrived by 8pm. I asked a doctor to find out when this would happen, as I would have to wheel her back to the old age home in the dark, through unsafe streets. 

"She is coming," the doctor told me, supposedly having called the specialist.

He just didn't say which day, month or year. 

It is far better to give the finger to weary, dispirited patients, than to lie. Lying is clearly not covered by the Hippocratic oath. At 9 pm, it's decided that the patient should spend the night. That decision could have been made much earlier, if anyone gave a fig. Ah, but then we are just South African citizens, not ANC royalty, friends or family. 

The next morning, I roll up, confident that all has been done. How stupid I am. 2 pm on this second day and all that has been done for the patient is to make her sit and wait, in a twilight zone where all communication has died a painful death. Drawing out the misery is a uniquely South African service skill.  State departments have honed it to a fine art. I speak to two sets of medical practitioners. One, like a good South African politician, makes a promise, then disappears forever. The other reports back that the doctor will follow up. Now where did I hear that before?

This government poison has seeped into business as well. Not for the first time, I queued at the only Capitec ATM out of three, that was still functioning. As in a Monty Python movie, the dreaded 'Out of Service' message proudly flashed on at the exact moment that I stepped up. Capitec, it's a fascinating business model that you have, sticking a couple of dead ATMs next to the sole living one.

Netflix has playing an intriguing game with a friend of mine, kicking him out at delightfully irregular intervals. And Netflix blithely continues, seeing no need for apologies or explanations that make sense to a rational human being. 

We are drowning in execrable service. And gulping down the stuff as we go. Have you been allowing this to happen to you - monkey business as usual? You shouldn't.

I am sure that there are some fine, compassionate, competent people somewhere in the swamp that our country has become.

We just didn't meet them on this occasion.

Tips for the blogger gratefully accepted 

Capitec Bank, South Africa  

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O Tichmann 

+27 833970723