At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, Lasizwe Dambuza sent a R100 electricity voucher to a Twitter user who had asked, out of desperation, for assistance. In sending the voucher, Lasizwe captioned the proof of purchase with the statement along the lines of: “Here is electricity, use it wisely”.

Many of us called Lasizwe out for what we deemed an infanticisation of the poor. There is absolutely no reason to tell someone to use a R100 electricity voucher “wisely” as though they don’t have the mental capacity to know that limited resources need to be preserved...