Corruption the new normal
THE buzzwords “white monopoly capital” and “radical economic transformation” have been given a new lease of life by our new president, who has stressed that more needs to be done to wrest control of corporate SA and transfer ownership to black industrialists.
Since 1994, we have witnessed this under different guises like BEE, BBEE, B-BBE and AA.
Despite these interventions making a half-a-million or so black people (largely politicians and business people connected to politicians) extremely wealthy in a very short time, it appears this isn’t sufficient and these same people want more.
Let us not be beguiled into believing that any of the ANC policies were intended to uplift the lives of the poor unless, at the same time, a tender to build low-cost (shacks) houses could materially enrich a few “connected” (corrupt) civil servants and connected businessmen.
With this kind of leg-up, even the doziest individual would have a problem not becoming wealthy.
The problem now is that the second tier is getting envious of the first tier’s wealth and wants a slice of the ever-diminishing cake.
The second tier comprises normal civil servants in middle to senior management positions, union officials, university students, business forums (Mafia) and the like.
The drones are becoming restless and we are seeing more of these battles being waged in city and metro councils where the smaller tenders are awarded and we now see prospective small businessmen who have seen the success of the first tier major league players and who now also want a cut.
They have no business as such, just a laptop, cellphone,
VAT number, CC registration and a bank account. These are the “facilitators” who grease palms to get awarded the contract and then farm the work out to businesses who can actually do the work.
Take, for example, the supply of printing paper where there are only two major league players.
The two majors submit a supply tender to XYZ Council at R200 per ream of paper.
However, Downtown Trading
123 CC gets the tender (despite not being in the paper business) and duly approach the majors, saying they will pay R200 per ream, and then, after greasing all the required palms, end up invoicing the XYZ Council R500 per ream.
The council is now paying R300 more per ream then it should, but the tender process is rigged to demonstrate that all supply chain procedures were followed and Downtown Trading 123 CC, who are B-BBEE level 1 compliant (the majors are only a level 6) gets the tender.
Times this by millions of rand and this is the scenario playing out daily throughout the country, and has been playing out for years.
This is largely why the stateowned enterprises are broke, along with 80% of our municipalities.
This is why the poor have remained poor – not because all the wealth is still in the hands of whites, but because the government is being used as a cash cow by thousands of corrupt officials and business people.
Now another far more sinister trend is materialising: that of land grabs where self-proclaimed chiefs are selling off farmers’ land that they maintain they own, to people from outside their clan.
So-called business forums are threatening any businesses who do work in the townships and other areas, demanding protection money.
Taxi bosses kill smaller taxi bosses in conflicts over routes. Councillors get taken out or threatened if they don’t award contracts to selected businesses.
Even that paragon of BEE, Vivian Reddy’s Pearls of Umhlanga is being threatened, with business forums demanding a R200 million kickback.
If this trend continues, it will close formal businesses that fund taxes, pay workers decent wages and adhere to safety standards and the informal sector will take over, leading to the breakdown of our society as we know it.
Taking from the rich to benefit the poor has never worked. Unfortunately, the indigent will remain poor because the elite need them to be poor and uneducated so they can be manipulated.
PETER WORMAN
Bluff