Talk is cheap, Cyril – crack down on graft

THE editorial opinion, “Walk the talk this time”, Cape Times, July 3, deserves congratulations and comment. It warrants repetition that “four months ago President Cyril Ramaphosa told Parliament that lifestyle audits had to be done”, as “clearly the bulging tool bag to combat corruption has not been equal to the explosion of crooked selfinterest”.

Add to this the recent approval by Parliament to yet again combat corruption, the Public Audit Bill, extending the auditor-general’s ambit to rein in those on the government’s payroll – yet another attempt to crack down on the miscreants.

The editor concludes in advice to the ruling party, “either crack down or get out”! This is a profound and, in my opinion, a ground-breaking editorial, but I have to ask, who is listening? Talk is cheap. Five months ago in his State of the Nation address, Cyril Ramaphosa said he would appoint an advisory council to oversee a job summit conference, a youth working group conference, an investment conference and a digital industrial revolution conference.

Maybe I am myopic, is there any news on this announcement?

On March 27, 2013, Ruchir Sharma, chief global strategist and head of the emerging markets strategy team at Morgan Stanley, who has written widely on global economy and politics, said at a BRICS Conference in Durban, that South Africa was maximum in government but minimum in governance! This was five years ago and this is how we are still perceived today by the outside world.

It is easy to talk big. To repeat the editorial conclusion: the public mood is not to be toyed with.

Either crack down or get out. It is time for President Ramaphosa to get down from the hamster’s wheel.

Stan Sandler Claremont