IMPORTANT: South Africa: Transvaal Agricultural Union: FIGHTING CORRUPTION IS LIKE FIGHTING THE WIND

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“We cannot prosecute our way out of corruption”. So declared National Prosecution Authority (NPA) boss Shamila Batohi speaking at the Public Protector and Department of Public Service and Administration conference (funded by the European Union) on 18 November this year. It is surprising and indeed refreshing to hear such intrinsic candour from a South African civil servant. She declared that “the truth is, prosecuting corrupt officials and private-sector players, even the most senior ones, won’t end or deter future corruption”. She continued: “It would be comforting indeed to believe that prosecuting 50, 100 or even 1 000 beneficiaries of corruption and their accomplices, would vanquish corruption and restore integrity. Without a committed and ethical leadership team inside the corrupt institution, actively reforming the culture, prosecutions alone will not shift it.” (Daily Maverick (DM) 18.11.24)

If there is one element that defines the 30 year reign of the African National Congress (ANC) over South Africa, it is wholesale corruption. This scourge has debased what was once a functioning country: corruption encompasses just about every malfeasance attributed to the ANC, from incompetence, thieving, non-accountability, nepotism, cadre deployment and entitlement.

Transparency International says in its 2022/23 annual report that corruption is actually a violation of human rights. It is a human right, for example, that South African citizens who pay taxes should be able to depend on their government, to whom they pay their dues, to protect them from the theft of these taxes. Yet around R2,15 trillion of funds due to the state have been lost between 2014 and 2019. Under the Bill of Rights of the SA Constitution, Section 12 – Freedom and Security of the Person – “citizens have the right to security.” (There is little law and order in the country).Under Section 24 (a & b), “people have the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being and to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations through reasonable legislative and other measures”, one of which (b [i]) states that these are “measures that prevent pollution and ecological degradation.” Section 27 declares that citizens “have the right to sufficient food and water”. On these three grounds alone, the government is party to corruption by its infringement on the human rights of many of its citizens. Crime is rampant (South Africa is the fifth most crime ridden country in the world), while pollution of our rivers and water resources is wide-spread. In addition, many parts of the country have not had drinking water for weeks.

So at the end of 2024, we find that corruption is as rife as ever, whatever the president says about “fighting corruption” He himself is guilty of corruption because of his cadre deployment policy (which he has husbanded and approved since 2017). This strategy deliberately places people in jobs whether they are competent or not, as long as they are party loyalists. Despite the fact that this deployment was declared ‘Illegal and unconstitutional” by Judge Raymond Zondo in his Judicial Commission on State Capture (2022), the practice continues. So bleating about “corruption must be eliminated” is just so much presidential hogwash. The corruption buck stops with the SA president.

To add insult to injury, the president has no intention of terminating his policy of this type of corruption. He recently told the National Council of Provinces that “transformation will indeed carry on and Black Economic Empowerment laws will continue as a need for reparation for historical discrimination against black people.” (Beeld 13.9.24) (Never mind that when whites came to South Africa there was nothing and that everything black people have today was given to them by the European settlers. Blacks were actually advantaged not disadvantaged. From where did they get everything that surrounds them today? They created nothing and were living in stone-age conditions even up to the end of the nineteenth century. This is an empirical fact.)

PROFESSOR WILLIAM GUMEDE – WHY THEY ARE CORRUPT

In a keynote article (Mail & Guardian 7..23), Professor William Gumede of the School of Government at Wits University sets out why the ANC is corrupt. They were always corrupt he says. “If the organisational culture of a liberation movement – when in opposition – is soft on corruption in order to safeguard unity, condones using corrupt means to attain political ends and allows those managing organisational finances to do so without accountability, the government such a movement runs when it captures power will very quickly develop a culture of corruption. This has been the case with the ANC when it operated as an exile movement: tolerating corruption by certain powerful leaders, not enforcing accountability in the management of funds, discouraging criticism of leaders’ behaviour by ordinary members and fostering a culture of corruption, even before the party came to power in 1994”. Gumede states that “struggle credentials were rewarded above competency, honesty and new ideas”.

How right he is! He goes on to reveal the motley crew that gave the ANC money: $50 million from the Indonesian dictator General Suharto; $60 million from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia; $10 million from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan of the UAE; $50 million from Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammed (later convicted of embezzlement); $30 million from Muammar Gaddafi of Libya; and 2,6 million pounds from General Sani Abacha of Nigeria.

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL

In transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2023, South Africa received its worst score to date. (Business Tech 30.1.24). Ranking 180 countries and territories around the world, the CPI measures factors in the public sector including bribery; diversion of public funds; officials using their public office for private gain without facing consequences; ability or otherwise of governments to contain corruption in the public sector; excessive red tape in the public sector which may increase opportunities for corruption; nepotistic appointments in the civil service; legal protection (or non protection) for people who report cases of bribery and corruption; state capture by narrow vested interests; and access to information on public affairs/government activities.

For the sixth year running Denmark has secured the top spot with a score of 90 (where zero is corrupt and 100 is not corrupt). Finland and New Zealand scored 87 and 85 respectively. Other countries at the top are Norway (84), Singapore (83), Sweden (82), Switzerland (82), the Netherlands (79), Germany (78) and Luxembourg (78). (All European countries except Singapore which is indeed an example to the world with its strong leadership and zero tolerance for corruption). South Africa scored 41 out of 100, dropping two points since 2022. The CPI remarked that “countries from sub Saharan Africa have a long way to go in their fight against corruption. The region’s persistent challenges are exacerbated by corruption and illicit financial flows siphoning resources away from basic services”. (Once again sub Saharan Africa is singled out for comment. Will SA continue to move down the list towards the company of such rogues as Venezuela, Syria, Turkmenistan, Haiti and North Korea who are at the bottom of the pile?)

Does president Ramaphosa feel any shame that we are in the company of thieves and brigands? It would seem not at all. His deployment policy and the incompetence, thieving and lack of accountability will continue unabated, despite vacuous public pronouncements to the contrary. The goal of the ANC’s collective cerebellum is to win the 2026 municipal elections so that they can keep their sycophants in local council jobs. More than 25% of ANC-led municipalities are dysfunctional and 41% have been identified as “medium risk”, according to data presented to the party’s lekgotla in August this year. (DM 7.8.24) At this meeting the president declared that his party needed to focus on “building capable and developmental local governments”. Don’t hold your breath that he will replace his incompetents with anyone remotely capable, unless they are loyalists. His deployment corruption will continue.

AND WE STILL KEEP PAYING!

There is one government department that the canny president made sure would operate efficiently – not too many of his chums work there! The employees at the SA Revenue Service make it their business to collect the country’s taxes and they do so adeptly. Yet many taxpayers are obliged to “pay off” their taxes: the number of these souls who struggle to pay, while those at the top buy another property or a luxury car, has risen from 74 000 last year to 98 000 this year. (Beeld 10.9.24) SA’s Corruption Watch reported in May this year that South African citizens have no confidence in laws that are supposed to stop corruption. They worry about the impact of corruption on their lives. Two thirds of the respondents said they doubt whether any legislation can stop corruption.

The handling of certain corruption cases by the powers that be have had a deleterious effect on South African psyches with regard to the country ever eliminating corruption. These are a few out of thousands of examples.

+ When the president himself is found with millions of US dollars stuffed in a couch in his living room, and the money is stolen and the theft is kept under wraps, one would expect a hue and cry for action to be taken. Those who stole the money are in jail but the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) has declined to prosecute the president. When the DA opposition presented parliament with a motion to impeach the president, it was defeated by the ANC-led parliamentary majority. Yet when a citizen receives a R10 000/R15 000 birthday gift through his bank from overseas, it doesn’t take more than few hours before they are phoned by the bank enquiring from whom did they receive the money, and why?

+ So far none of the big wigs fingered in the 2022 Zondo Commission of Enquiry into State Capture as having contravened the law have been prosecuted. Various reasons for this have been proffered but these people are still walking around, free as birds. (SundayTimes [ST]24.11.24)

+ The first group of accused in the Estina Dairy farm fraud and corruption case were finally taken to court, but were released by the Free State High Court for lack of evidence. This group included local politicians and the Indian Gupta brothers who stole millions and fled to their luxury homes in Dubai. (ST 24.11.24)

+ Former Eskom head Matshela Koko and 18 others were brought to court on corruption, fraud and money laundering charges in 2022 but the case was struck off the roll a year later, although the NPA assured South Africa it would enrol the case soon after. Nothing has happened since then. (ST 24.11 24)

+ Advocate Terry Motau’s report on the looting frenzy at the Venda Mutual Bank was released in October 2018 and provided full details of the fraud and corruption involved. It should have been a piece of cake for the NPA to take on. However, only two went to jail – one who pleaded guilty and the other made a plea bargain.. “None of the politicians involved have yet to be held to account”. (ST 24.11.24)

There are other serious problems that need mentioning. Everyone in South Africa uses petrol yet Petro SA, the country’s controller of imports of oil and diesel, refuses to give details of Petro’s diesel contracts, information sought under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PIA). For the past two years Petro SA – SA’s national oil and gas company – has reaped enormous profits from the load shedding crisis by buying diesel from unknown suppliers and selling it to Eskom at a profit. (DM 29.10.24). Petro SA has refused to answer DM’s request under the PIA Act.

In another scandal, Onderstepoort Biological Products (Pty) Ltd., the state’s manufacturer of animal and other vaccines, refuses to inform enquirers’ requests under the PIA act as to what is the situation with regard to the serious shortages of vaccines for animal sicknesses. Farmers are unable to access vaccines for foot and mouth and other diseases from OBP, and the animals are dying.

A fish rots from its head. South Africa’s leadership is so weak and corrupt that organisations such as those above feel they can ignore the law while the consequences are dire for SA citizens. Will 2025 be better? If citizens act, and they will, things could turn around. We cannot be slaves to corruption forever. We are all in this fight against corruption together.

jlamprecht