A PATRIOT MUST SOMETIMES STAND ALONE

It has now become a familiar story. The outbreak of the novel Covid-19 coronavirus in South Africa – a public health disaster now responsible for more than 11 000 deaths – and an economy gasping for oxygen have given many the opportunity to further plunder public resources.

This phenomenon, which I call a plundemic, has left most of us feeling unmoored in the face of the already weak optimism that preceded the onset of the pandemic. And just as the pandemic struck swiftly and with no mercy, so did a rapacious, festering den of thieves, seemingly emboldened by a coterie of corrupt ANC politicians and an avowedly