Reading the headline of a recent story in the Business Report, I was reminded of one of Joe Slovo's (probably apocryphal) stories about the Soviet Union. In 1956 at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, its then general secretary Nikita Khrushchev launched an unprecedented criticism of the Communist Party during the previous Stalin years. Speaking to a hushed audience of several hundred delegates, Khrushchev condemned the Stalin personality cult, and began to uncover some of the horrendous crimes committed against Soviet citizens in the gulags of Siberia and elsewhere.
Three quarters of the way through this grim litany, from somewhere in the back of the congress hall, an anonymous voice called out: "And where were YOU cde Khrushchev when these crimes were being committed?" Khrushchev stopped in his tracks, looked up from his speech, and with a menacing expression demanded to know: "WHO said that!?"
There was silence in the hall. After a minute, Khrushchev went back to his speech, nodding, and gesturing into the silent rows before him: "That's where I was in those years."
As I was saying, I was reminded of this story by a headline in Monday's Business Report. The headline (in the editorializing Opinion & Analysis section) referred to the controversial Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). It asked: "Where was everyone at the start of the toll gantry talks?"
To quote from the Business Report story: "Presumably those making the calls [for the entire process to be stopped] don't envisage halting the road works. To interrupt the operations would be a logistical nightmare and would extend the period in which motorists have to risk their lives on highways both in poor repair and under construction. The time to have raised all these issues was when the project was first mooted in 2002. Where was everyone then? The consumers, the DA, the trade unions, transport economists, motorist bodies and others? Why did everyone only wake up to the implications a few months ahead of the proposed launch?"
The Business Report is, of course, absolutely right (although, interestingly, it doesn't ask where were its own journalists back in 2002). The GFIP, after all, wasn't a secret project. Back in 2002 Gauteng newspapers like the Star continuously splashed enthusiastic press releases and speeches by the Gauteng MEC for Transport and the provincial Premier of the time on this major toll road project that would turn Gauteng into a world-class city region. Not only was there to be the present Phase 1, but we were also promised a Phase 2 and 3.