Johannesburg - The country's infrastructure now stands like a crumbling castle, a monument to no confidence in government, by government.
The power grid flickers and fades, like a dying light in a windstorm, while the rail lines rust and crumble, like the tattered edges of a forgotten book.
The water systems now falter and fail like a wilting flower. The people, like prisoners in their own country, feel the weight of a broken system pressing down upon them.
The government, like a feudal lord of this ancient castle, has long been charged with the protection and maintenance of the national grid. But now, like crumbling castle walls, it seems to have lost all faith in the very systems it was meant to protect. Moving government departments off the national grid is the latest in a long line of instances where politicians have shown no faith in the services they manage.
Like a misleading lover luring you into their magnetic field of lies, this is a story of toxic love. A peasant falls for a princess; the peasant is the people, and the princess is the services provided by the government.
She dangles clean drinking water and leads astray with assurances of sanitation, electricity and waste removal, the seductive suggestion of shelter, no potholes on roads, and the princess makes it rain with grant payments. Granting their love a chance to blossom in a place of ruins, where the flickering lights of a failing national grid, and a wilting flower of water systems, all failed to diminish the radiance of their affection.
The castle might have been in ruins, but in their hearts, it was alive with the promise of a new beginning every five-year cycle for the national elections. The rust and decay of the rail lines might have painted a bleak picture, but in each other's eyes, they saw a bright future depicted on free T-shirts and food parcels.
Their love cast its light across the abandoned hallways and broken arches of the castle; it could not be dimmed by load shedding. Instead, it bloomed like a rose in a barren wasteland.
But this love was unbalanced; the peasant was in love and dependent, while the princess was in love with dependency. It was not meant to be.
She was born into royalty, responsible for upholding the legacy of her kingdom, while the peasant belonged to the working class, with limited prospects in life. Their love could have been a threat to the balance of power.
The crumbling castle reflected their predicament. No matter how strong their love, seemed it was doomed to fall apart just like the castle walls.
Sometimes, love is not enough, and it takes more than affection and desire to overcome obstacles.
In the end, the peasant and the princess knew their love would always be a bittersweet reminder of what could have been. The crumbling castle would remain a symbol of their love, a testimony to the passion they once shared, even though they were destined to be apart.