Absa must just pay back the money

THE STAND-OFF between Absa and other societal formations over the financial benefits it improperly received during apartheid once more underlines how the powerful in societies such as South Africa continue to be treated with kid gloves at the expense of us all.

The fact of the matter is that Absa has been caught out and must do the responsible thing and pay back this money.

This is no less as in such “liberal democracies” as South Africa, much is made of The Laws of Succession which decree: if you take over an entity, you inherit all the bad and good that comes with this inheritance.

Thus Absa clearly benefited from a shady deal between Bankorp and the apartheid government.

This is why after 1994, the ANC government had to comply with that heinous injunction by local and international capital that it had to repay the apartheid debt.

Its plea that it would be unfair to be forced to do this on moral grounds was resolutely rebuffed. It was simply told “we lent the apartheid government money and you have taken over that government, and we don’t care about morality; we want our money back”.

Thus, why should Absa be treated any differently?

And this subtle move to try to legitimise this wrong by noting that the Mandela government and the officials who were supposed to have pursued Absa to repay this money did not do so must be exposed for the nonsense it is. This matter is not about what Mandela and his government did or did not do about this matter; it is simply that Absa , as a private entity, improperly benefited from state funds.

And where one may ask, are the plethora of “accountability” organisations that popped all over the place after 1994 like wild mushrooms, ostensibly to “safeguard democracy and instil ethics in society?”

Why have they suddenly gone to ground on this matter of Absa?

Indeed, if South Africa is to uproot all the evils, including corruption, that are evident in the post 1994 era, the country cannot afford to pretend that pre-1994 shenanigans can be swept under the carpet.

It just does not make sense to apply different standards when we rightly condemn the wrongs which are happening now and turn a blind eye when evidence is presented of pre1994 skulduggery.

WRITE TO US You take over an entity you inherit both bad, good

Pretoria East