A proud thorn in the flesh
IN THE US there is a political action committee, or rather lobby group, called American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). No congressman can be elected without their assistance, unless they sign a pledge of allegiance and undertake to pursue their narrow agenda.
In Mzansi, we have a similar organisation called the White Monopoly Capital (WMC) press – those who follow the dictates of Stellenbosch.
Dr Iqbal Survé has become a thorn in their flesh, one of those troublesome people who would have become a target of Vlakplaas if he was as prominent during apartheid.
Dr Survé has become an outspoken champion for real, on-the-ground, broad-based black economic empowerment and to grow and protect generational wealth for blacks so that soon blacks have a head start in life with a trust fund to ensure future success.
What a wonderful vision Dr Survé has, a dream he shared with Madiba. However, this vision of his and Madiba’s posed fundamental dilemmas for those bent on ensuring that the model of WMC remains intact.
For the menace of financial fascism, this is, instead of a welcomed vision for them, a threat because financial control means power.
This is the power that banks have over someone who has paid his house off over 19 years, and then because of some unfortunate event, he loses his job and owes the bank R7000. The bank than goes to the high court, where it is very expensive and very intimidating because of complex procedures for ordinary folk to oppose any sales in execution orders.
In a similar vein, for many decades, the same banks denied academically excellent black scholars the benefit of a study loan because the address could not be verified or just because they stayed in a location which was a high-risk impoverished area.
This was all part of the WMC racist master plan to ensure that the black oppressed remain poor and politically weak. There is nothing more threatening to the financial fascists than a thinking black man such as Dr Survè represents today.
His integrity and his faith, as well as his vision for justice, compels him to stand up for those not able to do so for themselves.
Through his newspapers he has been able to restore the dignity of the black man to a large degree; he has been able to instil pride in our customs and traditions, making us become human again after being brutalised since 1652.
The preponderance of so many such cases gives a lie to the notion that capitalism prospers societies.
Just as the International Management Group has hamstrung countries’ education and primary health programmes through structural adjustment programmes; the Financial Mafia, through their economic hit men, have their own structural adjustment programmes closer to home. How else to ensure perpetual poverty but to shut down a huge company like Sekunjalo with more than 8 000 workers and over 40 000 dependants?
The day October 9, 2019 will go down as a particularly dark day in the history of this country, when the offices of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) were used to score political points.
It is a high priority that the South African Human Rights Commission investigate this matter as well as the executive of South Africa. When, over a course of nine months, Steinhoff was haemorrhaging millions to eventually lose R300 billion, not once was Markus Jooste raided or the company he chaired, to search where R20bn of the Public Investment Corporation funds had disappeared to.
When Regal Bank was misappropriating, through illegal means, millions of depositors’ money, not once did the Financial Services Board, the forerunner of the FSCA, conduct any high-publicity raids on these companies. Why is Sekunjalo being targeted and victimised?
In terms of the court order the FSCA obtained for the information they needed, they could have checked on the website of AYO Technology Solutions (AYO). They could have emailed the company secretary to obtain the relevant information. Why the media hype and creation of a public spectacle?
Was the acting commissioner of the FSCA trying to show his bosses how loyally and obediently he carries out their wishes? Are our public bodies being run like spaza shops? Are we seeing the spazafication of our public oversight authorities?
The FSCA prides itself on being an autonomous and independent body, but like any institution run by a person, we know that he who pays the piper calls the tune. Will we be able to see soon who is paying the piper?
Are we seeing a return to the time when the National Prosecuting Authority and the National Intelligence Agency are being used to settle political scores? We now know there was nothing untoward in the conduct of any Sekunjalo company.
There is no talk about money laundering, theft of money, insider trading, etc. So NO illegal activity; then why, we, the ordinary public beg, why is Sekunjalo being targeted?
With a little grey matter gymnastics, it is not too difficult to come to the conclusion that the real target is the person that is Dr Survé, or rather, what he stands for. He stands for the eradication of extreme poverty from society, and to a large degree he has succeeded in ensuring that all members of his staff receive a living wage which ensures not only their creature comforts but their dignity, because since 1652, to be a black man in South Africa meant to kowtow to the capitalist powers and sacrifice your dignity, as black people were not equal to whites.
It is not in the interests of the financial fascists that Dr Survé succeeds, thus making him public enemy No 1 of Stellenbosch financial fascists.
What Dr Survé has done on a micro level for his workers can be done on a national level for South Africa through our Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear) as well as on a continental level as envisaged by Mbeki, in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development initiative of the AU.
Why is the eradication of poverty, the restoration of black dignity, such a threat to the WMC? Because turning on the banking screws will destroy the poverty-eradication zeal of Dr Survé and, by extension, that of Sekunjalo.
If we look at Koster, a town in the North West Province, last week, where shops burned down because the fire truck could not get water, it can all be traced back to a lack of leadership by those in charge.
Once those who lack leadership are in charge, a natural consequence is corruption. Sekunjalo has stood out as being the most obtrusive company to spread the wealth of this country to its workers.
Not once did the FSCA try to raid or even find out why the Koster Municipality could not afford to operate its water reticulation system or why it could not pay its operational costs. Is the FSCA guilty of neglecting its mandate and pursuing the personal agendas and vendettas of an elite?
I call on every freedom-loving South African to speak out against any injustice; Sekunjalo’s rights are our rights, too.