As the lives of almost everyone in our country gets dramatically worse, there is a stream of evidence that indicates that many parts of our society are uncontrollable by those who claim to be in charge.

Instead of trying to fix the big problems that affect us all, the "rulers" are turning inward. Some in government are spending more time fighting each other than trying to find solutions for our many problems. And our lives are getting worse by the day.

There can be no doubt about how bad things are.

It emerged last week that hundreds of thousands, perhaps as many as 2 million, children in KwaZulu-Natal had not been receiving their meals at school. This had led to some schools closing early because children cannot learn on empty stomachs.

The implications of this failure are huge. The children's lack of nutrition during school hours affects their families dramatically. Who can forget that so many adults had to forgo their evening meals during the pandemic so that their children could have something to eat instead?

Administrative reasons have been cited as the reason for this. The ANC in KZN has publicly apologised for the debacle, saying the provincial education department tried to move from a policy of having different suppliers for each school to one big supplier for a bigger region. During the transfer, the bigger supplier was not ready - and the children...