Lessons we can learn from Woolworths' bag change

SOUTH Africans are good at finding meaning in the mundane.

- NYANSIO QWESHA

Sometimes the best political metaphors aren't found in policy documents or investigative exposés; they come from something as ordinary as a shopping bag.Woolworths recently swapped its longstanding black plastic bag for a white, semitransparent one. It may seem trivial, but it's smart signalling. White communicates cleanliness, openness, and confidence. It is a brand saying, we have nothing to hide. You can see the contents. You can judge for yourself.

It is a pity the same cannot be said for governance in Ekurhuleni. For far too long, the city has operated inside its own version of the black bag, thick, opaque, and deliberately concealing. Decisions were taken in closed rooms.

Processes collapsed into political turf wars. Reporting lines blurred. Procurement systems drifted into crisis. And the public was expected to accept whatever "weight" was handed to them without ever seeing what was inside. Then came the Ad Hoc Committee. Then came the Madlanga Commission.