If I lived in a squatter camp and visited my local shebeen to watch the news on TV each night I would have to ask myself what it was that my government had done for me? When I watched them pulling up in front of Parliament in their luxurious R1m plus cars, I certainly would be resentful.
As I look at the designer garments they are wearing, the homes they live in, the interests they have in businesses and private enterprises, I would be suspicious and angry.
The ANC government seems to be on a path of complete self-enrichment for the chosen few in positions of power.
The dreams of a better South Africa for everyone have evaporated with each salary increase, each additional overseas trip and each new Mercedes Benz, BMW or Lexus.
I don’t live in a squatter camp, but I most certainly am resentful about the excessive expenditure lavished on powerful ANC members.
Where does Youth League leader, Julius Malema, get the money to buy a property worth R4,6m, buy luxury cars worth more than a million, and throw lavish parties costing hundreds of thousands?
He is reportedly the majority shareholder in SGL Engineering (Malema denies this), but the records show that he became a director and majority shareholder in May last year. SGL Engineering won a lucrative contract to build bridges and roads in Limpopo.
Apparently the bridges have fallen down or been washed away and the roads have failed. Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele has promised to investigate the contract and the work done.
In a separate newspaper article, I came across the story about one of President Zuma’s wives, Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, living in a rented mansion in Durban that is paid for by “family friends”. The owner of the property was about to evict her until the businessman stepped in to bankroll her and end the dispute.
She is the head of the MaNtuli Foundation that was established to help poor and destitute communities. Exactly how much she has helped the poor and destitute is unknown.
Another recent case of alleged fraud led to the former head of prisons, Xoliswa Sibeko, being fired after she rented a house for herself in the luxury housing estate of Woodhill, east of Pretoria, costing taxpayers R35k a month. She did so despite the fact that there was an official government residence available for her.
Late last year a total of 923 government officials were investigated by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) for housing fraud in South Africa – 800 of them working in national or provincial government and 123 employed at a local authority level.
Government employment, it seems, provides an open ticket to theft and self-enrichment in one form or another.
It’s a strange phenomenon that seems to occur in countries throughout Africa. The ruling clan, party or dictator enriches himself or herself at the expense of everyone around them and is then surprised when there is an outcry about his or her actions.
The consequences for the country are disastrous. Just look at Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Angola, The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Swaziland, Cote d’Ivoire and even Guinea Bissau.
It’s as though there is a culture of entitlement permeating all the government departments in South Africa and other African countries today.
For South Africans, those people who were involved in the struggle seem to think it is now payback time and each one of them seems hell-bent on amassing as much money and property as they possibly can.
And it’s all done at the taxpayer’s expense and to the detriment of those hopeful millions who remain locked in the quagmire of poverty.
It’s hardly surprising that the people who put these government officials in power are staging violent service delivery protests everywhere in the country. Just yesterday at least 14 aggressive protestors were detained at Mabuluka after an angry and aggressive protest forced police to fire rubber bullets at a crowd of about 3,000.
Outside Pretoria, more angry residents of the Itireleng informal settlement have been given eviction orders amid claims from them that Tshwane mayor Gwen Ramakgopa made “empty promises” about how the city would develop an informal settlement for them. They had previously been evicted from adjacent land that belongs to the Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) company.
These evictions are likely to turn ugly and violent too.
And some government officials seem to be a trifle concerned about the widespread self-enrichment programmes. Just last week, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba urged government to take stronger action against the thousands of lazy and corrupt officials that work for the public service.
And, he said, individuals within government can no longer blame 40 years of apartheid for the widespread corruption that exists in every government department and local authority in the country.
Self-enrichment and corruption are at the centre of many rows that keep emerging as more and more cases are exposed by a vigilant media seeking the truth. The problem I have with this is that it’s all very well to expose corrupt ministers and – where warranted – get rid of them.
But what are we doing to stop further cases of corruption?
We have an indaba about the moral state of the nation and it is quickly clear that the morality is, like George Orwell’s famous statement, applicable to some but not to everyone. In other words, some are more equal than others.
It seems to me that most government officials are under the impression that they are above the law and are able to do precisely what they want to do without any fear of reprisals.
Look around you and see just how much wealth has been acquired by government officials and independent, new companies in the past 16 years since our first democratic elections.
There are housing estates that are falling down, public buildings that are standing empty but new government “campuses” have been built in Zoutpansberg Road and in Pretorius Street.
And there are hundreds more of these projects underway too. Government-owned buildings in the central parts of the city are derelict while government officials move into plush, newly-built office blocks in the suburban areas of our cities. And the government deserts the premises it owns, leaving these older buildings to rot.
It is such a terrible waste of our money.
Worse still, the buildings aren’t recycled either.
So instead of taking the old Land Bank building or the old Department of Foreign Affairs building and turning them into housing units, for instance, the properties are left to decay until they are invaded by homeless people who just need some shelter somewhere.
At the same time, we have the privileged rulers amassing huge amounts of wealth – much of it unexplained and unaccounted for – and being “supported’ by supposedly wealthy businessmen and women who just happen to like being charitable.
I think that more investigations into government corruption will gradually throw light on the “laundering” that goes on within state departments to support influential people in positions of power.
I think what we are seeing is a different form of money-laundering where government funds are channelled, through suspect routes, to enrich individuals who actually work for the government.
There was a detailed investigation into the relationship between Zuma and his disgraced former financial adviser Schabir Shaik some years ago and while all charges have been dropped against Zuma, Shaik still has a criminal record even though he isn’t behind bars anymore having been released on medical parole.
Now, all over again, a group of unnamed business people in Durban have been bankrolling the President’s second wife and paying her rent, garden services, electricity and water accounts at the Innes Road property on Millionaire’s Mile.
And they are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts? Out of kindness and philanthropy?
It just doesn’t make sense to me.
*Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and doesn’t pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddy@neomail.co.za.
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