We lack capability, morality and skills to govern in SA
The coronavirus has foreshortened the inevitable collapse of our society and economy. The inevitability of SA becoming another failed African pipe dream was on the cards long ago.
The inherent inability to govern or manage is brutally exposed by the horrific mess we have made of every facet of life.
The last few years have proved conclusively that we South Africans do not have the capability, morality or management skills to govern ourselves.
Our ruling party, the ANC, has long lost its moral compass. It is controlled by a coterie of failed individuals, many of whom are complicit in some malfeasance or other.
In this week’s Sunday Times, under the headline “If not corruption, then what is it?” auditor-general Kimi Makwetu says “officials are quick to evade consequences by claiming that billions misspent do not necessary constitute corruption”.
What an indictment! During his tenure over the past few years he and his office identified no less than R65bn in irregular spending.
In another explosive report, Popo Molefe testifying at the Zondo inquiry into allegations of state capture, stated that he in 2015 personally informed the ANC top six, which included Cyril Ramaphosa, of the blatant looting of more than R2bn at Prasa.
He said they ignored his allegations, refusing to even query the outright theft.
It is a sad indictment of the ANC, especially against our president who, to his everlasting shame, never raised a finger nor uttered a squeak in nine years as Zuma’s trusted lieutenant.
Has the corona epidemic been a timely attention-getter, putting all the malfeasance, Zondo and other shocking inquiries on the back burner?
Has our president grabbed the moment to try to assume the high moral ground?
Ramaphosa’s tenure is, however, convoluted and his leadership controlled by the ANC coterie.
He is not his own man — emasculated, undermined and thus unable to provide the charismatic leadership this country in crisis so desperately demands.
Is it any wonder that ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule announces the reinstatement of Danny Msiza and Florence Radzilani into parliament?
How these two, who were in influential senior positions, can glibly deny any knowledge or corrupt complicity in the VBS Mutual Bank chaos, boggles the mind.
Yet they are now rewarded and welcomed back by their colleagues, into parliament.
Our municipalities are in a mess. Makwetu’s latest audit results reveal that only “18 out of some 257 municipalities managed to produce quality financial statements and performance reports, as well as complied with all key legislation, thereby receiving a clean audit”. Billions have been irregularly spent.
One fails to find words to describe the utter shambles Nelson Mandela Bay municipality is in. Even by the ANC’s despicable standards, the mess they have made in Port
Elizabeth is surely the pits.
That they do not have anyone better than failed mayor Mongameli Bobani speaks volumes!
Corruption will continue to flourish and be part of our daily lives. The present cigarette embargo alone has made millions of our people criminals.
History will judge the government harshly and when one considers what could have been achieved with the stolen money in improving the lives of our people, [those found guilty of corruption] should be put in jail for the rest of their lives.
One can only speculate how much better prepared we would have been to face the Covid-19 epidemic had all the squandered billions (trillions?) been applied to improving our health services and living conditions.
Sadly, our leaders are out of their depth, do not care and hide behind collective coteries. Thank heavens Pravin Gordhan, Tito Mboweni and a few others are the exceptions that prove the rule.
The paranoiac feelings about a white-controlled economy is akin to a baby throwing its toys out of the cot. In a state of denial, people with humungous inferiority complexes lash out and for the umpteenth time look for the convenient apartheid scapegoat.
As Julius Malema states, whites should not be helped, they should be allowed to fail! If this is not racism, what is?
It seems he would rather have people starve than have a white man in any vestige of control.
The scourge of racism is like a millstone round our necks, dragging us all down, stultifying actions and demeaning us at the same time.
Thousands of skilled South Africans have and will continue to emigrate. Our loss is another country’s gain.
Racism in any form is akin to the vile apartheid scourge. But two wrongs will never ever make a right.
The future of SA lies in the hands of our young people but we have denied them an education as the demands of the epidemic worsened an already dysfunctional system.
This year’s scholars, in the main, have little chance of passing their year-end exams.
One wonders how the system is going to cope with a huge failure rate. Or will they pass students irrespectively and produceanother generation of illiterate, uneducated young people with no hope of earning a living?
The stark reality is they are our future entrepreneurs and leaders.
The DA is at war with itself, ineffectually trying to make up its mind, wasting its energies on irrelevant issues like Helen Zille’s irresponsible tweets.
It has lost its focus and identity and has become part of the problem rather than the solution.
What is the solution? Quite frankly, one despairs, but can still stand in awe of the resilience of our people who feed millions via food parcels and provide medical care, ensure our shops are well stocked, that we still have water despite the leaks, petrol in the pumps, and that Eskom has not imploded.