ANC fat cats feast while our poor suffer

I WAS watching an old video of a debate in the Government of National Unity (GNU) between FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, so it must have been around 1992/94.

In his speech Mandela made some pretty hard-hitting comments which I will paraphrase. He started off by saying that if he was elected president of the GNU, he would restructure the budget (then sitting at R126 billion) to avoid the wastage of the apartheid government.

He also committed to stop the corruption of the National Party that he said was endemic in that party. He even committed to cut his salary and ended off by saying that the ANC-led government would not live like fat cats.

Since then we have listened to dozens of commissions of inquiry, acres of news print and countless books reporting on the endemic corruption of the ANC-led government going right back to the infamous arms deal that happened under Mandela’s watch, right through to now, where we’re still listening to the shocking testimonies of state capture that occurred under the Zuma regime.

During this time there have been a steady torrent of reports detailing how government coffers have been looted by corrupt government employees assisted by corrupt businessmen – to the point where we are now, with 90% of our municipalities bankrupt, most of the SOEs are bankrupt, and health care has seen a steady deterioration since 1994, as have lower and higher education.

In short, the ANC cadres have destroyed the country and worse still, have broken just about every promise they made to the largely poor electorate. In the above speech, Mandela referred to 5 million unemployed and 7 million without houses. Compare this to around 16 million currently unemployed and millions still living in slum settlements.

Is it possible that Mandela was so out of touch with the greed of his Cabinet? Many of his initial Cabinet went on to make millions out of their rent-seeking behaviour, summed up by Smuts Ngonyama, who famously said he didn’t join the Struggle to remain poor.

A headline in one of the country’s largest newspapers in 2006 told us that five of the members of the ANC’s national executive committee had amassed R1.5bn from empowerment wheeling and dealing.

What happened to Mandela’s statement that the ANC wouldn’t live like fat cats? Clearly the elite cadres were not listening.

What this demonstrates is that the ANC have failed the people of SA spectacularly, despite a 10-fold increase in our budget.

South Africa and South Africans deserve better and have waited long enough for their place in the sun.

I would estimate that 90% of the population just want to live a decent life in peace and to have the funds to feed and educate their children.

But our dreams are being shattered by these corporate and government bullies whose actions ensure that the majority will continue living in poverty.

And the ANC still wants to introduce a NHI. I predict that will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

PETER WORMAN | Bluff