SA’s delayed Covid-19 vaccine rollout a timely reminder of our cavalier attitude to meeting deadlines. Perhaps it’s because missing deadlines seems to have little to no electoral consequences...

Migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television was meant to happen by November 2010. Earlier this month the Communications Minister moved the deadline to 2023.

Mud schools should have been eradicated by the government’s own 2016 deadline. In 2018, the Eastern Cape government pushed the deadline to 2022.

In 2004 government promised the eradication of informal settlements by 2014. As of 2019, 4 million people resided in informal settlements.

Pit latrines in schools were meant to be eradicated by 2016. In August this year it was revealed that 4 000 schools still used pit latrines.

Deadlines for the Department of Social Development to resolve the foster care grant backlog have been missed consecutively since 2011.

In September 2015, Cyril Ramaphosa said that loadshedding would be over within 18-24 months. Tonight, 29 December 2020, we go into Stage 2 loadshedding.

Democratic failure leads to state failure. The only people who can fix this are the voters.