2022 in review: Hard news in a hard year
As South Africans prepare for the year-end festive and
holiday period, many are finding themselves exhausted and thinly-spread.
Following a tumultuous year, The Drive with Rob and Roz takes a look back at
the year, which started with a bang…
- Parliament on fire…
While most people were still recovering from New Year’s Eve celebrations, Parliament was going up in flames. Firefighters battled to bring the fire under control, but as soon as they thought they had succeeded, the flame re-ignited. The damage was devastating and troves of historical artefacts were destroyed in the blaze.
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- Hammer time…
Days later, a man attacked the Constitutional Court with a hammer. The incident sparked concern because it affected another seat of governance, so shortly after the Parliamentary fire, but also because it came hot on the heels of the release of the first report with findings from the State Capture Report.
- The extent of State Capture
Journalists, commentators, and ordinary South Africans would spend much of the year ploughing through volumes and volumes of findings from the commission of inquiry, led by now chief justice, Raymond Zondo.
The staggered release of the commission’s findings were indeed staggering – millions and million were looted from the state and various state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and, eventually, in October, it was finally said that the state was indeed captured by a criminal network, headed by the controversial Gupta family, and facilitated through networks of bribes and dodgy deals.
- Zuma a free man
Meanwhile, one of the key players in the State Capture saga, former President Jacob Zuma, was again a free man.
Zuma was released on medical parole after being sent to jail for refusing to cooperate with the commission of inquiry into state capture that he helped establish – and in October, that medical parole lapsed, meaning he had effectively served his time.
- Flooding, flooding, and more flooding…
South Africans may well have been suffering from corruption-fatigue, and could be excused for ignoring some of the developments around State Capture, also because they were trying to survive amid devastating flooding.
In April, KwaZulu-Natal was rocked by devastating flooding that wiped out infrastructure, destroyed homes, left thousands destitute, and lead to the death of scores of people.
In December, Gauteng also suffered severe floods with the National Sea Rescue Institute having to assist people in Soweto and the West Rand in boats.
Both the Western and Eastern Cape also suffered widespread flooding during the year.
However, the lingering impact of the KZN floods meant that electricity and water infrastructure was devastated and heading into he festive season, the water on many beaches was still not safe.
- Load shedding and dark times
The only positive for KZN, and even that's at a stretch, is that subsequent to the flooding they were spared the dreaded load shedding – and it was a very dark year for the rest of South Africa.
With record-breaking extensions of the dreaded rolling blackouts, South Africans had to start asking what would happen if the grid collapses completely. It affected everything, form the economy, to traffic, to matric exams – and is not getting better any time soon.
- Krugersdorp rapes and femicide
One of the horrific stories that shook the country in 2022 were the brutal rapes of eight women in Krugersdorp by a group of illegal miners. A member of the film crew that was attacked was also implicated in the case, which put the spotlight firmly on gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa.
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- Covid? What Covid?
In one of the few glimmers of hope, government did, at least, end the state of disaster that was declared in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While COVID-19 is very much still around with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) still reporting weekly infection statistics, the relaxation of pandemic regulations meant that life, for the most part, could continue as per normal with COVID-19 largely endemic now.
Tune in to the 'The Drive with Rob & Roz', on weekdays from 16:00 - 19:00. Stream the show live here or download our mobile app here.