Choose the good people, not cadres

If there was any doubt – before the release of the auditor-general’s (AG) annual report – that South Africa is inexorably heading down the road to “failed state” status, that doubt must be dissipating. The AG’s report said irregular expenditure by government departments, provincially and nationally, continues to soar. In the 2018-19 financial year, this dodgy spending amounted to R62.5 billion, up almost R10 billion from the year before.

The huge increase – 20% year-on-year – in irregular expenditure is shocking because it shows that Cyril Ramaphosa’s promised “New Dawn” of efficiency and a crackdown on looting may have been little more than hot air.

Analyst Xolani Dube said that this country is already a failed state “led by selfish and greedy people”. He went on: “We have to be honest about how our leaders continue to fail us.”

Dube also put his finger on the core problem with the lack of delivery and the abuse of funds.

It was, he said, because people were being deployed to critical positions based on only one criterion: loyalty to the ANC. Such “cadre deployment” continues to cripple government and state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Yet, when someone who is not an ANC comrade or, heaven forbid, not even black, is appointed to a critical position, there is an outraged howl from the woke and racially triggered. Such has been the case with Andre de Ruyter, who has been tasked with bring Eskom back from the dead.

There must be plenty of capable people – who are not white, possibly not even male – who could help rescue our provinces and municipalities … the sort of people who do their work for the good of the country, not for the benefit of the fat cats in the party.

Until we start running our entire country on merit, not political loyalty, the failed state path will continue to beckon.