DON’T SAY WE DIDN’T WARN YOU
From the ignoramus mayor to the feuding ministers, it was written on these pages
One of the joys of the ANC’s misgovernance of so many aspects of our villages, cities, provinces and the country is that the negative consequences of the party’s actions become apparent very quickly. Look at good old Joburg.
Just a few months ago the ANC, accompanied by its progeny the EFF and COPE, gleefully ousted the DA’s Mpho Phalatse from the mayoral chair. They replaced her with an incoherent ignoramus, Thapelo Amad, a councillor of the Al Jama-ah party. It commands just three of the 270 seats in the council.
When journalists and other opposition parties told the ANC that this man did not have the qualifications, the nous, the experience or the reach to run a sophisticated, complex animal like Joburg, we were laughed out of court and even called racists.
Amad is an empty suit. He is in office while the ANC and EFF run him and the council by remote control. His job is to ask “How high, boss?” whenever the ANC’s Dada Morero or Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, the architect of the
Joburg fiasco, tell him to jump.
While Amad dances to Lesufi’s instructions, the ANC’s coalition partners, the Patriotic Alliance (PA), Patricia de Lille’s Good, the EFF, COPE, the African Transformation Movement, and all the other rats and mice lick their lips and rub their hands as they scoop up the corruption dregs from the ANC’s table.
Well, it was never going to last. The house of cards of corruption and incompetence has a habit of caving in on itself.
Last week Amad, the poor sod, went on the SABC and made us to understand that he is a finance wizard of note and is now able to take out huge loans on behalf of the rate-paying residents of the city that will tie them up in debt for the next 20 years.
He said: “I was in a meeting with one of the stakeholders I was able to secure a prospect of about R9.5bn, where this company says: ‘We are willing to give you this loan, but it will come in a form of a finance model. It comes at an interest rate of about 2%. You only pay 2% for a period of about two years, without paying the amount of the loan. It’s only the percentage. Then after five years, you will pay for the next 15 years.’”
Bless. The man is saying someone is going to give him a 2% interest loan for his tenure, and the loan will (obviously) then incur some horrendous interest for 15 years when your kids are paying rates and taxes while the fat cats quaff wine in Dubai, laughing as the city descends into a hellhole.
This is the problem, you see. You take someone who has no clue what they are dealing with, put them in a position of authority and before long they think that they can have drinks with someone at a hotel bar and secure a loan on behalf of the city. I mean, seriously, interest rates are at nearly 8% and this “leader” doesn’t smell a rat when someone gives him 2%? Wow.
Anyway, only three months ago some of us were warning the country against the ANC-EFF-PA coalition in Joburg. Now the PA’s Gayton McKenzie says he apologises for backing the mayor: “Amad has been asked to climb a mountain too high for him. It’s not just harming Joburg, it’s destroying him too. We will rectify this blunder. Amad should resign now. We apologise profusely.”
Yeah, right. To be honest, McKenzie, Lesufi and EFF leader Julius Malema don’t care. Joburg is dying and they are playing politics. In their hands, things will, sadly, get worse.
In February I was one of those who warned that the new electricity minister would be bickering with the public enterprises and energy ministers in no time. Well, here we are in April and my Business Day tells me that Kgosientsho Ramokgopa believes that Eskom’s ageing power stations need investment to refurbish them to improve their performance and prolong their lifespans. Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan believes it would be wiser to invest limited capital in new generating capacity from renewables. Policy uncertainty ensues.
Again, we told you so. Just two months ago.