CORRUPTION - A CRIME AGAINST THE POOR IN SOUTH AFRICA

By Marimuthu Subramoney
(aka Subry Govender)

"A new South Africa would be meaningless if the problems of the millions of poor people were not tackled. The perks of a new government are not really appealing to me. For me what is important is the continuation of the struggle - and we must accept that the struggle is always continuing."
These noble words were spoken by one of the greatest sons of South Africa, Chris Hani, just before he was cruelly gunned down by a gang of white right-wingers at his home in Boksburg in 1993.
Hani, who was tipped at that time to take over from Nelson Mandela as the leader of the ANC and the country, was merely espousing the core values, principles and commitment of a movement that had captured the imagination of the people. Hani, Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, and hundreds of other liberation leaders wanted to build a new South Africa where people would work hard to build a peaceful and prosperous society and a better life for all.
Unfortunately and to the disillusionment of the committed activists and leaders of our great freedom movement, thousands of others, including sadly many former activists, who saw the dawn of the new South Africa to enrich themselves, their families and their cronies.
A former spokesperson of the ANC and Head of the ANC Presidency, Smuts Ngonyama, shocked most people, including some committed ANC leaders, when he highlighted the new trend by making the following astonishing statement:
"We didn’t struggle to be poor."
He made the shocking statement when it was disclosed that he was part of a company called, Elephant Consortium, which had been granted a Telkom tender. Ngonyama’s share was a staggering R50-million.
The scandalous statement by Ngonyama merely confirmed the rot to which many members and leaders of the ruling ANC have descended to enrich themselves, their families and their cronies. Over the past few years this decay has infiltrated almost every sector of government departments at local, provincial and national levels.
This despite the fact leaders such as former President Thabo Mbeki and current President Jacob Zuma identifying corruption as the main contributory factor to the increase of poverty. In an address to an international forum on corruption in Johannesburg just before being booted out by the ANC at its national conference in Polokwane in 2007, Mbeki highlighted the fact that corruption was not undertaken by the poor but by those who wield financial and political power.
He said: "In many instances corruption serves as a sufficient condition for the further entrenchment of poverty, negating the potential for development. We know of many examples where corruption robs a large section of humanity of their right to homes, food, transport, education, health, clean water and many other essential services."
How true! But it seems the likes of Ngonyama have forgotten about improving the lives of the poor and the disadvantaged majority. They only have a single mindset now - to amass as much wealth as possible, in the shortest time possible, and the manner in which they derive the wealth is of little significance.
In addition to Ngonyama, other ANC bigwigs and their families who have climbed the millionaire and billionaire bandwagon include Tokyo Sexwale, who is now the Minister of Human Settlement; Duduzane Zuma, the son of President Zuma, who has become a billionaire overnight by entering into a partnership with the Guptas in a BEE deal with the world’s steel giants, ArcelorMittal; and at the local level, two daughters of Durban Mayor Obed Mlaba, who reportedly are linked a R3-billion deal with the Ethekwini municipality.
The hyenas and scoundrels have become so entrenched that for every local government tender there’s an official who is soaked in bribery and corruption. This is illustrated by the experience of a former policeman who lives in KwaMashu, Durban. When he took early retirement in 2008, he started a construction company in order to keep himself busy and earn a livelihood.
He applied for a number of tenders to the municipality but was not amused with the reception he received at the hands of those in charge of the tenders.
He said: "After I forwarded my last tender, I received a call from an official who told me that I would be given the contract on condition I delivered R500 000 in cash to his house. I was not shocked but just disappointed.
"I never thought this will happen in our new South Africa where people working in government departments would become so caught up in the world of corruption and bribery. If I gave the official R500 000 where would I get the money to continue my work as a contractor?
"Corruption is taking its toll on our lives."
Corruption has now become so ingrained that one of the struggle leaders of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s inside the country, retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, spoke out very strongly once again against the situation recently.
Speaking at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, he said:
"Perhaps the Gupta family would make all those lucrative deals and it is merely coincidental that the president's son is a beneficiary. It may be above board, but it is worrisome.
“The country has tremendous potential, but is being dragged backwards by corruption.”
Where have we gone wrong? What has happened to all the values and principles we fought so valiantly for during the hurly burly days of the struggle? Has it been thrown out of the window so that political leaders, their families, friends and their cronies can rake in millions and billions without BREAKING A SWEAT?
We cannot afford in the new South Africa to have a few thousand filthy rich people – black and white – while at the same time there are more than 12-and-half-million people unemployed, more than 15 million struggling on government grants and hand outs and millions others barely making ends meet.
President Zuma and the ANC Government must root out corruption if we are to save our beautiful South Africa from the problems currently being experienced by countries in North Africa and the Middle East.- Subry Govender