ANC needs to get rid of thieves and liars

IT TOOK tens of thousands of Indians – of indentured labourer and passenger Indian stock – several decades to help build the new South Africa through political activism.

It took just three Indians – Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta who arrived in South Africa from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh just 25 years ago – to capture the state by influencing cabinet appointments and government contracts.

The Guptas, exploiting their proximity to President Jacob Zuma, have in no small measure contributed to the country hurtling towards full junk status by interfering in the mandate and independence of the National Treasury, controlling the deployment of senior government officials who would do their bidding, influencing financial decisions within state-owned enterprises and, through a slew of corrupt deals, accessing millions of rand worth of government contracts.

If all three major international ratings agencies decide to downgrade South Africa to junk status over the next few months, the impact on the fiscus will be severe.

Consumers will find their rands are worth less and they can buy fewer goods with their money.

The ANC faces a Rubicon moment. It must take a decisive, irrevocable step.

Some quick googling teaches that when Julius Caesar in 49BC led his army to the banks of the Rubicon, a small river that marked the boundary between Italy and Gaul, he knew Roman law forbade a general from leading his army out of the province to which he was assigned.

By crossing the Rubicon, he would violate that law. Caesar crossed the tiny stream – and plunged the Roman republic into a bloody civil war.

On the night of August 15, 1985, South Africa’s then president, PW Botha, delivered the infamous “Rubicon” speech in Durban.

The minister of foreign affairs at the time, Pik Botha, had told the world to expect a radical policy shift – but he was wrong.

Among the expected policy shifts that did not materialise were the release of Nelson Mandela and the abolishing of the apartheid system.

South Africa’s Struggle history is dominated by the ANC, a freedom movement that created real heroes during its days of exile.

Sadly, however, the present crop of comrades and cronies within the ANC has worked against the broad masses leading a decent life and achieving prosperity.

There is no instant panacea for the nation’s ills.

The biggest problem for the ANC is how to reform the party.

There is a glaring deficiency of sound, credible, upright leadership within the party, which only two decades ago seemed invincible.

Since coming into power in 1994, the ANC has been dogged by scandal after scandal.

The spy tapes, billions in improper government spending, arms deal corruption, the SAA, SABC and Eskom woes, a dodgy nuclear deal, cadres faking their CVs when they are not embroiled in sex scandals, Nkandla, Marikana, Waterkloof, KPMG… the list is endless.

This resulted in the party losing control of key metropoles in the elections in August last year, and even senior party leaders openly criticising Zuma and their own colleagues.

While the ANC has retained power after subsequent elections in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014, only a major shift in policies and proof of delivery on development can help it remain politically supreme.

The ANC must do some serious introspection and realise it is not more important than the country.

It has no limitless entitlement to unbridled power. The party must shed its cloak of arrogance.

Yes, it is true the ANC had visionary leaders who gave their lives for the Struggle.

Among them were Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni and a host of others.

Imprisoned for 27 years for his opposition to apartheid, Mandela came out of prison in 1990 expressing no bitterness towards his tormentors.

Instead, he championed reconciliation among South Africa’s polarised races, espousing the principles of nation-building and co-operative governance.

He tackled the challenge of uniting both the country’s racial groupings and a fragmented public service whose delivery mandate was skewed in favour of whites.

Alas, today the ANC has few men and women who can take on the mantle of yesterday’s champions and carry the torch forward.

With a growing contingent of self-serving Breitling bureaucrats, the government has failed to deliver “radical economic transformation” by forgetting its promises first made in the Freedom Charter and subsequently in a world-class constitution.

The disease of plundering state resources for personal gain at the expense of housing, toilets, schools and clinics has deeply rooted itself within the ANC and only major surgery can end this undisciplined pursuit of corrupt ends.

Instead of looking for problems within its own walls and accepting responsibility, those in power have taken comfort in blaming external forces for internal setbacks.

Going forward, the ANC needs to perform a cleansing ceremony. It must get rid of thieves and liars who have made the party their home.

It may also be apposite during this period of political posturing to remind the ANC not to sideline Indians and to consciously remember the positive role that Indians had played in the Struggle against apartheid.

Though under apartheid they were considered as second to whites in the racial hierarchy, Indians had consciously chosen to regard blacks as their brethren and played a critical role in the Struggle for a non-racial society.

When Mandela became the president, he acknowledged the great sacrifice that Indians had made in the Struggle for democracy. He included six Indians in his cabinet of 16 members.

Today, with a cabinet comprising almost 80 members – the US, with a population six times bigger, has a cabinet just under onefifth of the size of South Africa’s – there is only one Indian member, Ebrahim Patel, who heads Economic Development.

I dare say with no fear of contradiction that Zuma has more Indians he can rely on for financial loans than Indian cabinet colleagues.

He halved the number of Indians in his cabinet from two to one in March 2017 when he fired the respected finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, sparking widespread outrage and sending the currency plummeting.

There is little need to remind Ramaphosa that not all Indians are Guptas. Since his days as secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, he has had long, close links with Jay Naidoo, the founding general secretary of Cosatu and who also served as minister responsible for the Reconstruction and Development Programme in Mandela’s office and as minister of posts, telecommunications and broadcasting.

After quitting politics, Naidoo decided to dedicate the rest of his life as a volunteer helping the next generation find its voice and its destiny.

Naidoo is well-known for advocating that the voices of ordinary people be heard to address poverty, creating livelihoods and addressing and building social cohesion.

We need to move far from the era of the Guptas, who stand accused of nothing less than buying a president and selling the future of a nation.

The fate of generations to come will be decided by how we get our political house in order, and which will inevitably contribute to an economic turnaround bringing the promised better life for all.