Everything comes with instructions. Shaving gel, shampoo and skin care products often prescribe minuscule amounts, unlike the globs we often apply for no good reason. By following the instructions, things will last longer. Assembling and wiring DIY projects works better if you read the manual, despite the fact that most of us do at some point. The same goes for a country. It has a manual, and if you follow it to the letter and apply it, the economy, social cohesion, institutions like the judiciary, and public obligations like the Road Accident Fund and other state-owned enterprises can just take longer for everyone. South Africa’s…
Everything comes with instructions. Shaving gel, shampoo and skin care products often prescribe minuscule amounts, unlike the globs we often apply for no good reason.
By following the instructions, things will last longer. Assembling and wiring DIY projects works better if you read the manual, despite the fact that most of us do at some point.
The same goes for a country.
It has a manual, and if you follow it to the letter and execute it, the economy, social cohesion, institutions like the judiciary and public obligations like the Road Accident Fund and other state-owned companies may just take longer for everyone.
South Africa’s Manual, the ConstitutionCelebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary last year, collecting some dust in the archive of good ideas for the first quarter of a century, only being brought out when a headline was needed, or in some cases justification and criticism.
Running a country is not easy, especially if your roots remain firmly rooted in Stalinist ideas, but you are faced with the reality that socialism never worked, and that the free market has liberated the world economy for centuries, reduced poverty and living standards everywhere.
Yet the insistence of comrades that there is always a new form into which Marx and Engels can be beaten is like pulling a dead horse. Even condoms can’t claim that one size fits all, and it takes balls to admit that your ideals are flimsy and your organization dysfunctional.
The ANC-led government is caught between a rock and a rock and has a massive battle ahead if it is to survive.
The question is, who is going to lead that attack?
An aging policy and an ongoing tsunami of corruption, selective application of rules, tired slogans for all, and smoking and mirroring exercises of virtue are not washing away with a new generation of South Africans finally looking beyond the veneer.
The ANC is winding itself up in irrelevance and, hopefully in some cases, in jail. That is, if there is real political will to persecute people like… Ace Magashule and Zweli Mkhizeor for that matter do something about extortion, corruption and money laundering charges against Jacob Zuma†
So far history shows that Tony Yengenic was one of the few comrades to end up behind bars for taking more than his share.
If only the above mentioned had used the manual.
Numerous arrests have been made. But none of the fraud and corruption mentioned ever matched the R 1 trillion stolen of the tax authorities in five years, which President Ramaphosa admitted some time ago.
If only the long-fingered cadres all read the Hitchhiker’s Guide for Ruling Parties and Corruption for Dummies as a side-script of the Constitution, we could have it all. A thriving economy, lower unemployment and maybe even less poverty.
A simple rule of thumb, the first chapter in both rough guides, could have made all the difference on the path of gaps South Africa is now following. You can eat at the trough if you want, but at Jove! Steal a little less at a time and leave something for tomorrow.
After all, that’s what the National Party rule should have taught them with the alleged billions in Swiss bank accounts. Still, schools were built, dams were built and we had no load transfer under the Nats.
Cleverly steal and crucify a few scapegoats to appropriately hide financial fallacies. Pietie du Plessis was handcuffed for R300 million, Hennie van der Walt for R800,000, and Leon de Beer, a former MP for Hillbrow, was jailed on 70 counts of fraud. Shabir Shaik and plenty of others are making love.
Rather than nailing them down and locking them up, the South African government launched an anti-corruption strategy that comprised 146 pages of structural planning.
Also read: Too much talk and no action: South Africa stagnates on corruption index
In his foreword three years ago, President Ramaphosa gave us big slogans and vitriol.
He said: “We advocate a new spirit of leadership in business, government, labor and civil society that upholds professionalism, ethics and anti-corruption practices at all times. We will enforce the principles of good governance in all areas and ensure consequences for corrupt individuals and organizations.
“Our The Vanir-exoduss will always act with integrity and will not be hindered from taking action against corrupt individuals through whistleblowers and other measures that promote transparency and accountability. Government and corporate procurement systems will be managed with a high level of integrity, efficiency and effectiveness. State law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies will be competent and integrated, and their independence and authority will be respected by all.
“We will build resilient institutions and do our utmost to protect vulnerable sectors and individuals in society who are at high risk of corrupt practices and unethical behavior.”
So where is all this, Mr. President?
Foreign investors fall for slideshows and promises only so often, and so do voters.
At this stage of our socio-economic disintegration, I see only qualified controls of state institutions, more poverty and fewer jobs. I see state-owned companies in a mess.
Couldn’t executives have stolen a little less?