DON’T WASTE YOUR SYMPATHY
The real villains are those in tailored dark suits, wearing pointed shoes and expensive watches. You see them feeling important while using ceremonial pairs of scissors or gold-plated shovels. They meet “business people”, listen to the sounds of their own voices making empty speeches to their impoverished followers or talk down to unfortunate employees of government departments or some bankrupt state-owned company. They could be government officials or leaders of political parties.
These are the “leaders and representatives” of the government who collect grey bags filled with dirty, stolen cash from fraudsters masquerading as business people. These “representatives of the people” are the real thieves who represent nothing but their own interests.
They hop from place to place, speeding and skipping red traffic lights in shiny German sedans paid for by the public, in a rush to collect the latest bribe. Dare drive in front of them and woe betide you. You can’t be standing between a greedy crook and hot, dirty cash.
What clever fools they are — the bribes they receive are only small change from the money they help to steal from the people they claim to represent. The business is just a front for a money-laundering operation disguised as a service provider to the government. You need only search for the images of your favourite obnoxious businessperson to see corrupt leaders, grinning like children receiving candy, standing next to them. Start by searching “Bosasa” images. Go to “Adriano Mazzotti” or “Atul Gupta”. Make your choice.
These “leaders” are not merely accomplices to the crimes their paymasters perpetrate, they are the real enablers and protectors of the criminals. Willing participants committing treasonous crimes against the very same state to which they swore the oath of loy- alty. Of course in all criminal syndicates there will always be victims and some innocent, if naive, participants. Many employees of African Global Operations, as Bosasa now calls itself, are such innocent victims.
That is, apart from the people of SA — the real victims of the corruption the company stands accused of.
Plight of the innocents
Even in job-starved SA, there are far too many jobs that should never have existed. The close to 4,000 Bosasa jobs should never have existed, the same as those at the erstwhile Gupta media and mining empires. The crooks will always try to gain sympathy, using the plight of their victims.
That’s how they operate - stopping at nothing to manipulate any situation to achieve their own nefarious ends. Bosasa, the Gupta companies and similar firms have ensnared many innocent and decent people desperate to earn a legitimate income. Instead, they found themselves trapped inadvertently in criminal enterprises.
Of course, many will suffer, and families will be devastated. But let us not fall into the trap of sympathising with thieves whose only business was to steal as much as possible. These so-called businesses stole opportunities from legitimate entrepreneurs who would have contributed positively to society.
The good and skilled among the Bosasa employees will still get jobs. Some will start businesses. For them, losing a job in a defunct criminal enterprise will turn out to be a net positive.
It’s a pity their bosses, who contributed immensely to the image of a corrupt and business-unfriendly SA, will still walk the streets and continue enjoying their ill-gotten billions. Of course, they were smarter than the rest of us — they corrupted the law enforcement agencies first.
These ‘representatives of the people’ are the real thieves who represent nothing but their own interests