‘It is the year 2010 in the morning, June 16 and in Pretoria-Tshwane people in the street going to work and school are even fewer than usually; mouth covered as it has become customary to wear surgical masks….’ So reports the one hour radio broadcasting, I remotely wind the volume down and switch it off to write an entry to be submitting to 4thWALL. The television programming has become defunct. However by some weird force of technology the Cybersphere continues to hold henceforth bloggers continue to log on and blog not to forget to mention Facebookers who are also party to the feeding of the net. But dear reader this is not the point of the present fable.

On a worse note those who are relying on public means of transportation to get around are stranded because the Consolidated Workers of Public Transportations (CWPTs) are on strike. And those who are weak are bed ridden due to the Donkey Flue Pandemic. It is estimated that more adults than children have contaminated the deadly virus. Apparently children have proven more resistant to the infection of the deadly virus. At least that is what was known before the government Nurses and Doctors went on a national strike due to wages and working condition… (Cough)

Worse the first World Cup to be held in Africa has been canceled due to the scourge of DFP (you guessed right, Donkey Flue Pandemic)… (Sniff) Aids and other chronic illnesses, that seek medication, continue to wipe away those in whom it has advanced. It seems as if the mechanism that has always fuelled humanity has come to a stand still. As I write this entry I am quarantined in my own home with my wife and the children. As it is we are at what has been termed the third face of DFP…(Guff)

Meaning we are sneezing and coughing terribly to be let out into the surgical mask clad wide world for fear of passing the disease to other people in this advance stage. So we must perish in our nest. Perhaps the children will recover and outlive us. After our demise what will follow will be sanitization of our little flat and the removal of what will be remaining of our emaciated bodies. So as you read this gory (sniff) tale, in perhaps 2020 or so you might be wondering what went wrong. Well one thing that I can let out to you with my little understanding of how creation operates is that human beings from creation onwards they have always competed with diseases. They have learnt how to manage and elude them as they advanced scientifically. We were at the stage where only our carelessness will destroy us when DFP Struck – our doom. And I much suspect that that is why we are dying – we were careless. (Guff)

…on the other hand our life in this planet, in addition to fighting with viruses, has also been subjected to economic survival game or war if you will, henceforth the strikes of CWPTs as well as our health workers. You will be surprised that somehow those who are having medical aid schemes seem to be holding up the disease due to their affordability of ADV (Anti Donkey Vaccine I think it is called) drug taken monthly. Thus the DFP is doing the rounds with poor souls who cannot afford medical aids schemes because they cannot access medical attention at the public health sector. In our household we have depleted funds in our medical aid scheme henceforth the subjection to quarantine by medical detectives. Those who are still well and are clad with surgical masks can’t even earn their meagre wages because the CWPTs are on strike.

Movement is restricted. My dizzy thoughts remind me of a televised interview I saw in 2007 of the president of SAMA (South African Medical Association) on ‘House Call’. During the interview he argued that the conditions in which the doctors (Gruff) were working were unattractive henceforth South Africa was losing good medical doctors and nurses to the private sector and as well as to outside countries, especially the West. When questioned what could be done He gave a radical proposition as an attempt to turn the situation around; he said if the government were to reduce the medical aid grants to its employee or even to cut them altogether to encourage the usage of government hospital – This way the state can invest money into the improvement of hospitals and the working conditions of the doctors and nurses. Thus the environment would be attractive to our South African doctors and nurses. (sniff)

As much as this idea was radical at the time when I heard it, I wish someone in the powerhouse of our state could have taken heed. Perhaps when the swine Flue broke out in the backyard of Latin America last year more doctors and nurses working in good working conditions in our state hospitals will have been our first arsenal against rot and agony that we smell and feel around us today (cough). As for the CWPTs it is a question of management and capacity. In South Africa the taxi industry has thrived without government interference for years. It was initially put in place by a people who have been ostracised to use the government transportation in the days of the great social divide – in apartness times. Before being absorbed (gruff-snuff), the government should have studied the taxi industry in the context of South African culture in order to appreciate its nature; meaning taxi routes, tariffs, challenges, incentives and aspiration and came up with an African solution. Meanwhile (cough, sniff, gruff…

April 30

© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2009