Politics of the stomach and the gravy train must be stopped

ON MONDAY night, Makhosi Busisiwe, Khoza who appeared on the Justice Factor, laid bare what has gone horribly wrong in the ruling party. Too many people, she pointed out, were thinking with their stomachs.

Jay Naidoo, speaking on the side lines of the launch of his new book, Change: Organising Tomorrow, Today, laid the blame at the door of NEC members. They were hell-bent on protecting President Jacob Zuma “at all costs because their stomachs had taken precedence over their hearts”. Clearly it is all about the stomach now.

It is obvious that South Africa is having to suffer the grievous consequences of the politics of the stomach. What a gravy train Zuma has actively created! Brian Molefe’s reported golden handshake of R30 million for a short stint of less than two years at Eskom highlights the extensive abuse of scarce state resources. At the upper end life is rich and rewarding.

ANC veterans who were heavily invested in the life and death struggle for freedom in our land, are deeply saddened and feel marginalised. Khoza, who was a Struggle activist from her early teens and who is an ANC MP, also feels marginalised. She is consistently shut out from all meetings of her branch. Gatekeeping in the ruling party is so pervasive that branches only invite those who are in the inner circle.

Gatekeeping is necessary for the seekers of high end patronage. It is their passport to the land of milk and honey and the fruits of state capture. They in turn, become dispensers of patronage at the lower end. To attract money and opportunities for themselves, branch officials operate a strictly closed shop. Factionalism is rewarding to those in the right circle.

Tragically, the mission of improving the lives of all South Africans has taken a back seat. As state resources are looted, R40 billion last year, the state has to intensify its borrowing and thus the two trillion ceiling has been pierced.

The free and easy spending of many in government has become a source of worry to some in the ANC. On March 27, Naledi Pandor urged the ANC to conduct lifestyle audits because politicians and officials were living a lifestyle that could not be supported by what they were earning. Of course, this will not happen.

Zuma has shown himself to be most reluctant to sign the Fica Bill in spite of its double passage through Parliament.

What interests Zuma immensely is the trillion rand nuclear deal. Naidoo is shocked that the government “wants to spend a trillion rand on a nuclear deal that we don’t need, we cannot afford and that has nothing to do with our energy security”. We too should be equally shocked . A future as disastrous as that of Greece and Zimbabwe awaits.

The extensive borrowing will strongly negate the fostering of intergenerational equity. Zuma’s government has repeatedly replaced shortterm loans that were due for payment with longer-term borrowing. The next government and the next generation will have to pay back what he and his administration have recklessly borrowed and unconscionably squandered.

As the crisis deepens, voters will do their own cause great harm by remaining unstructured and unorganised. As marginalised people, we can can kiss goodbye to accountability, responsiveness and good governance if we remain indulgent and apathetic as we have been. The ball is now in the voters’ court. Farouk Cassim Milnerton