Know the facts before pointing fingers at government over corruption

BEFORE we start pointing fingers, let’s look at political and state corruption before 1994.

Transvaal president Paul Kruger had a wealth-distribution system particularly for Afrikaners.

Companies wanting to do business in the Transvaal had to be well disposed towards Kruger’s regime. Sound familiar?

Patronage networks were formed and concession holders issued lucrative subcontracts.

The results were mixed. A high degree of personal and arbitrary administration continued which ended in a great deal of nepotism and laxity in the Transvaal civil service. Sound familiar?

Then Milner came and swept aside Kruger’s system of patronage networks and placed wealth in the hands of Anglophone mine owners.

This period, between 1910 and 1948 was probably one of the most brutal parts in our history and was characterised by the start of job reservation. Sounds familiar?

Afrikaners’ turn for unchecked state corruption returned between 1948 and 1972.

They bloated the civil service and preferentially funded everything that was Afrikaner, awarding state contracts to their kind, uplifting poor whites through the civil service.

The result was a new Afrikaner middle, capitalist class that enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and wealth. Sounds familiar?

Broederbond capitalists were involved in some of the known scandals like Muldergate. But what about that which remained uncovered and what were their costs? This period saw the creation of the homelands system in which the apartheid regime turned a blind eye to the infusion of the homeland system with organised crime.

The period 1984 to 1994 saw unprecedented looting. As the Pickard Commission concluded: “Public officials felt as if they were missing out if they were not helping themselves. Many of these officials had become disillusioned by their futile efforts to serve the apartheid ideology.”

What happened to all that money? Most of it is still in the hands of whites.

So please, give back the money before you start with sanctimonious finger pointing.

AL-AMEEN KAFAAR

Sybrand Park