My column today examines the link between level crossings, smoke and potholes and perhaps, a random cow.
I find myself remembering Mr Wentzel, an erstwhile seconded surveyor general to the government of Bophuthatswana, with whom I worked very closely from 1982 to 1987. I learnt a lot from him.
My task in Bophuthatswana, after being halted from proceeding to Botswana by the late Lucky Motlamelle, a former senior university colleague in Lesotho, was to plan the 1985 census of Bophuthatswana and for that, I would lean on the surveyor general’s office.
Mr Wentzel was a dependable 65-year-old retiree on whose face ran a map of contours, the mark of experience. Around him hung the scent of the smoke from a pipe mixture he used. His thumb had tanned, flattened and hardened from the constant refilling of his pipe.
We used to travel together to Pretoria for backup support from the Surveyor General’s office. On those three-hour trips, there would be a constant discussion about our professions.
Mine was just beginning, while his was a well overflowing with experience. We built a very warm working relationship between Bophuthatswana Statistics and the Surveyor General’s office.
However, during one trip, Mr Wentzel reached out for his pipe mixture and pipe lighter to take a puff. It was a complicated procedure, and he had to compress the mixture with three fingers supporting the pipe pot. And as he lit his pipe, I had to slow down and stop due a stop sign.
It reminded Mr Wentzel of trains and level crossings.
He told me that almost four or so people had been crashed into by an on-coming train at that very same level crossing.
But nothing was done.
Then on an unlucky day, the wife of a Lichtenburg member of parliament was crushed by a train at this level crossing. Now it was all action to stop this happening. A decision was then made to place the automated train signalling that causes the gates to close for passage of an approaching train.
As I reflect on the pause in time between smoke and level crossings, we now live in a world where smoking in public is not the norm.
I think back to being in that Mazda 323 with Mr Wentzel’s smoke, and I wish that there was a time warp, that Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma passing laws against smoking in public places had come into being earlier. Before her cracking the whip on smoking, it was an accepted norm that people could smoke indoors and in company.
I am reminded of this successful campaign and implementation of an act against powerful tobacco industry forces.
However, this law succeeded in its design and implementation against the all-powerful cigarette companies and their all-important sponsorship of sports, especially soccer.
I ponder the question now, “Who bewitched this nation?”
And in retrospect, many lives are lost and opportunities forfeited often at times because of legislation, or lack of legislation, in particular, as well as the planning for execution and the public communication that is attendant.
Dlamini Zuma’s tough legislative talk affected everyone. No one was exempt, where even the pipe mixture of then president Thabo Mbeki had to be curtailed, and even a friendly mercantile smile from Dr Kader Asmal would not be reciprocated by Nkosasana. The Cabinet knew the discipline and the marching orders.
But into this mixed story of pipe mixtures and level crossings comes the sad loss of our beloved MEC of Education, Tate Makgoe of the Free State, a person I admired and who showed that change in educational performance is possible.
The then Premier of the Free State, Ace Magashule, summoned me twice in as many days to Parys, where a provincial cabinet Lekgotla was held. The key issue being discussed was education.
Premier Magashule would be animated as he spoke of the number of bursaries allocated to students by settlement and by institution. But he couldn’t believe it when I presented to him progression ratios, which prompted him to ask the question, “Are we doing enough? We need to do better?”
When Minister Angie Motshekga convened a national indaba with trade unions on education, it was in the Free State.
Premier Magashule and the sadly departed MEC Makgoe were there leading the charge for change in educational outcomes.
The cause of death for MEC Makgoe was a crash into a cow on the highway.
This reminded me of the story of the level crossing Mr Wentzel relayed to me. And of level crossing and smoke, added to the mix is now potholes.
South Africa's roads are filled with potholes, pointing to the state we have plunged to. The carnage and road rage, the unfenced roads, the poor settlement and livestock management with appropriate fencing have not caused only the Makgoe family and country a serious loss, but there are many who are little known suffering this fate.
But in order for the impact of Makgoe not to fade out of memory, may the message that Mr Wentzel shared with me irrigate the policy space so that the politicians can manage better. May they be omnipresent with the equivalent care that Makgoe passed onto South African children. Cabinet of South Africa, please make the roads safe.
Dr Pali Lehohla is the director of the Economic Modelling Academy, a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
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