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Volume 12, No. 8, 28 February 2013 |
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Red Alert Corruption in the South African corporate sector and the deafening silence of the usual critics |
By Cde Thulas Nxesi, SACP National Deputy Chairperson
It is generally accepted that corruption has become such a serious challenge to the extent that it is beginning to impact negatively on South Africas nation-building effort as well as on its international image or reputation. It is for this reason that the ruling ANC and its alliance partners have identified fight against corruption as one of their priorities alongside creation of decent work, fighting poverty, promoting rural development, education, health and combating crime.
The government has established a range of corruption fighting programmes and institutions. Consequently, most of the high-profile cases of fraud and corruption, including senior people from within the ANC and government ranks, are brought to light by government law-enforcement and criminal justice agencies. This, if anything, is a clear demonstration of governments commitment to combat corruption.
The fiercest and most relentless critics of corruption in the public sector come from the mainstream corporate media as well as the main opposition parties. This, of course, has to be welcome if it is genuine and consistent watchdog role they are fulfilling as it keep public servants on their toes. These critics, though, never seem to give any credit to government efforts to combat the widespread corruption even where there is overwhelming verifiable evidence proving this point.
There are relentless efforts to paint every public official servant or institution - unless these happen to be in the Western Cape under the DA government that has been generally granted corruption-immunity certificate in advance - as being corrupt.
Whenever an incident of possible corruption by government is reported, it is taken as a fact that needs little or no verification. But corruption happening under the DA government is given benefit of doubt with numerous opportunities given to DA to present its side of the story.
More recently South Africa has been hit by a damning revelation of widespread corporate corruption involving, but not limited to massive tender collusion and price-fixing amounting to billions of rands. Much of this corruption targeted government infrastructure programmes leading up to the Soccer World Cup of 2010.
This organized crime, according to preliminary reports, involves major corporate players in the construction industry who siphoned off muchneeded public resources. It should be noted that much of this investigation was conducted by the government law-enforcement agencies.
The Competition Competition is also considering these cases of anti-competitive behaviour that is so rife and tends to squeeze out small and mainly black businesses from taking part in these multi-billion infrastructure development projects. Reports of this massive syndicated organized crime by the big corporate entities made a very brief non-headline appearance in our print media but it mysteriously vanished never to be reported on.
Perhaps the most amazing thing is that preliminary revelation of such massive fraud and looting of much needed public resources has attracted very little attention from the mainstream media. Even more interesting, the usual fierce critics of government corruption from opposition ranks and from an army of watchdog groups have reacted with deafening silence to what may be the largest and unprecedented corruption case.
Some of our print and electronic media that tend to dedicate a huge chunk of their budget in pursuit of corruption story have suddenly vanished. The relentless pursuit of such stories by investigative journalist and the exposure of personalities involved is suddenly absent as they lack appetite to even utilize the already available material from law-enforcement preliminary findings.
The other interesting fact takes on a racial dimension: when Bobby Motaung and other black businessmen were charged with tender irregularities involving Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga, they were detained and paraded in front of cameras for the world to see.
But with the big corporates involved, we have not seen any evidence of such publicity stunts. Where are the champions of equality before the law and fair administration of justice when they are needed most? The aforementioned cases merely demonstrate that corruption is a society-wide problem in both the public and the private sector, and should be confronted with equal vigour wherever it manifest itself.
Secondly, the evident silence of the mainstream media and opposition critics when such corruption is unearthed in the corporate sector may suggest something more sinister or a blind-pot for those who would have defined corruption as being synonymous with government/public sector and efficiency in terms of the private corporate sector.
There is also a racial dimension to this if you factor in our colonial and apartheid past. In our public psyche, we have always been socialized in a manner that suggests that criminality and being black are associated and natural irrespective of the absence of any scientific evidence to back this stereotype.
It is for this reason that corrupt activities under the DA government in the Western Cape are given benefit of doubt with all the airtime and space given to its leaders to present the context and rationalize their actions. In contrast, with ANC government a mere suggestion that there may be corruption is taken as a proven or expected fact until proven otherwise.
Instances of price-fixing, tender collusion, overcharging of citizens are not limited to the recent scandal. The price-fixing of bread prices by Tiger Brands, the excessive bank charges, the above-the-market rate cell phone charges indicate the widespread practice with a sense of impunity.
Corporate greed and corruption is an international phenomenon that is, to a large extent, responsible for the current global financial crisis that is wreaking havoc around the world. Such scale of corruption and its impact on ordinary citizens of the world is unparalleled.
The monopoly corporate sector in South Africa has the advantage of having one of the greatest concentrations of power and a stranglehold over each sector it controls. This sector also funds some political activities and media outlets.
It is for this reason that mainstream media find it difficult to confront the big corporate sector with the same passion, relentlessness and vigour as they do the public sector. Moreover, most of the mainstream media is owned by and accounts to the big corporates so they dare not upset shareholders, so much for the often-invoked adage of speaking truth to power.
Much of the wealth in South Africa is still concentrated in white hands which are still controlling the commanding heights of our economy. This also explains the racial dimension of how corruption is depicted as being a largely black phenomenon.
When the late Brett Keble was reported as linked to and funding the ANC Youth League leaders he graced the front pages of newspapers as being this rouge businessman, but suddenly vanished from the front pages once it was reported that he had also donated money to the DA. With Gupta business revealed donation to the DA again it is a de javu as history repeated itself.
The above narrative simply instructs us to be fair, consistent and honest in exposing and tackling corruption wherever it rears its ugly head, be it in the big corporate private sector or in the public sector, as all these rob resources from the very poor ordinary citizens.
Big corporates should be stripped of their licence of immunity and impunity when they do wrong, as they often impose opportunity costs by siphoning off public resources. They should be subjected to the same scrutiny as the public sector as they often take.
The second point is that we must forever be vigilant not to succumb to our subconscious racial biases of color-coding criminality of corruption especially given our racial past whose legacy is still very much with us. War against corruption should involve all of us without fear or favour. One would like to conclude by invoking a great African liberation icon, Amilcar Cabral, when he says Tell no lies, claim no easy victory.
As government and the regulator of the built environment, we shall watch with interest as to how the present scandal in the construction sector plays itself out. Can we expect the at least name and shame the big corporate wrong doers? What is the appropriate punishment for collective corporate crime and looting in a key sector economy?
More importantly, what is the way forward? How do we collectively purge fraud and corruption from the public and private sector? To enhance investigative and forensic capacity to enforce compliance and bring to book corrupt individuals will certainly a deterrent effect.
Probably more important is the need to put in place transparent and robust supply chain management systems that make it easy for weak people to do the right thing and difficult for bad people to do the wrong thing.
If we can emerge from the present corporate scandal in the construction sector with a commitment from all stakeholder to clean governance and put in place the process and checks and balances to enforce this. Then something good will come out of this.
From the government side, the commitment to tighten up procurement processes referred to the in State Of Nation Address is key.
Asikhulume!!
This article first appeared in Business Report
The Democratic Alliance is instigating our students in Cuba to abandon their studies.
By Phatse Justice Piitso
Few days ago some of the South African medical students studying in Cuba embarked on a protest action complaining about the provision of the food ratios and the amount of the monthly stipend they receive as a gesture from our democratic government. Without concrete facts and evidence, based on their subjective and shallow understanding of the objective circumstances, as usual the DA made inflammatory allegations about the state of affairs of the affected community of students. The leadership of the DA took an extraordinary effort to undermine one of the most essential bilateral agreement our government has entered into with the Republic of Cuba.
We all know that as a result of the inevitable outcomes of the Apartheid education system and many years of perpetual neglect of the black people by imperialism and colonialism, our country has a devastating shortage of human capital especially with more emphasis on the health sector. Many of our qualified doctors with the required essential expertise and absorptive capacity are reluctant to work in the vast rural outskirts of our country. The ratio of health professional personal in comparison to the demands of our society is far below our expectations.
The major challenge our democratic government has to confront with, are the socio economic contradictions of poverty, disease and underdevelopment. More specifically our country is confronted by a quadruple burden of diseases such as HIV and TB, high maternal and child mortality rate, non- communicable diseases and increasing statistics of violence and injuries. Even if the rate of our population growth is at 0,7 percent of the world population, our country constitute 17 percent of the world HIV population and nearly two million of our population is on anti retroviral treatment.
The pestering shallow allegations by the DA which are of coarse based on historical falsehood, was to accuse the authorities of the Cuban government for having arrested the medical students who were participating on the strike action. The students demanded provision of quality food and also demanded for the increase of their monthly stipend from two hundred to seven hundred dollars. They even went to an extent of giving our own government an ultimatum of their impending return home if they demands were not adhered to.
Even thou that some of the grievances advanced by the students may be genuine, we must not rule out the possibility of the subtle hand of conspiracy by agent provocateurs. We must always bear in mind that the Cuban people are advancing the noble cause of a socialist revolution at the doorstep of the imperialist American empire. At home the forces of counter revolution will find solace with the Democratic Alliance. If my memory serves me well, there are a number of responsible students from our country, who have even used some of their savings from the very same amount of a monthly stipend, to be bread winners and even build decent houses for their poor families.
The Democratic Alliance will never appreciate the significant contribution by the Cuban revolution in building the foundations of our human capital. The heroic contribution of the Cuban revolution in the struggles for the liberation of the people of our continent against imperialism and Apartheid colonialism is an aggravating factor. They will never ever forgive the immeasurable acts of solidarity, the generosity of the Cuban revolution and its indomitable contributions during the historic battle of Cuito Cuanavale, that saw the eventual defeat of the most repressive, racist and sophisticated apartheid state machinery.
The memories of the heroic interventions by the Cuban revolution during the battle of Cuito Cuanavale will forever ignite nightmares within the ranks of the Democratic Alliance. In his own words the Commander in Chief of the Cuban revolution had to say this about the heroic battle of Cuito Cuanavale" the decisive battles should not be waged on the terrain chosen by the enemy, the decisive battles must be waged on the terrain chosen by one own forces, and the enemy must be hit in sensitive, truly strategic places". We owe our being to the heroic men and women who occupied the forefront trenches and relinquished their lifes, in defense of the freedom and equality of our people.
Our struggle icon and the former President of the ANC and our first President of the democratically elected government of our Republic, former President Mandela, expressed the following profound revolutionary words during his first visit to the Republic of Cuba, just after his release from the Apartheid jail" Cuito Cuanavale was the turning point in the struggles for the liberation of the continent and our people from the lash of Apartheid". We are therefore not amazed by the everlasting shockwaves of the defeat of the Apartheid regime at the battle of Cuito Cuanavale. The memories of the victorious battle of our people are still reverberating within the ranks of the racist leadership of the DA.
The heroic victory of the people of Cuba during the historic battle of Playa Giron, the battle that heralded the first military defeat of the most powerful imperialist state on the planet earth, the USA, and the declaration of the first socialist state in the American Hemisphere, was an epic event of historic proportions that nourished the brotherhood between the Republic of Cuba and the people of the African continent. During the battle, indeed the revolutionary expressions of the national hero of the Cuban war of independence Jose Marti that " our Motherland is Humanity" echoed through the crossing waves of the Atlantic ocean into the offshore of our motherland, Africa.
Immediately after the historic battle of Playa Giron that signaled the first military defeat of the USA in the Latin America, the Commander in Chief dispatched the first warship, that undertook a long courageous journey of humane solidarity, to pay the first and everlasting moral debt to the people of the African continent. The warship the Bay of the Nipel carried weapons to the National liberation Front under the leadership of Amilcar Cabral, to assist the newly born revolutionary Republic of Algeria against the looming expansionist invasion by the Moroccan Monarch.
On its voyage back to the Caribbean Islands, the revolutionary Island of Cuba, the Island of the heroic woman of African descent Mariana Grajales, the mother of the Cuban revolution, the mother of the outstanding revolutionary Antonio Maceo, the warship the Bay of Nipel carried back home to the Commander in Chief of the revolution, a precious cargo from the African soil. After unloading the weapons to the National Liberation Front, the warship carried back a precious cargo of hundred wounded Algerian freedom fighters and war orphans, who would as a result of this historic link between Cuba and the African continent, became the first patients and students from our continent to be received by the generous hands of solidarity.
This precious cargo of wounded combatants of the National Liberation Front of Algeria and war orphans, was following the great footsteps of millions of African men and women who were forcefully chained from their own homes to be sold as slaves in the Americas. Of the hundred million slaves displaced and forcefully shipped into the region, forty million arrived in the American offshore whilst sixty million died in the beautiful waters of the Atlantic oceans. They died in the long crossings of the Atlantic ocean as they were forced by imperialist and colonial masters to work as slaves in the land of the unknown.
In the centuries of the existence of mankind there was no a monstrous acts of genocide which sacrificed millions of human beings, as were the enslavement of the people of the African continent en route to the American hemisphere. The African people are the victims of the most bestial,merciless, and the most prolonged genocide recorded in the history of humanity. These are some of the untold horrific stories and concealed acts of genocide committed by the the participants of the Berlin Conference which took unilateral decisions to partition the Africa continent without the concern of its own inhabitants.
We are confident that the arrival of the warship the Bay of the Nipel at the African shores reverberated the graveside of the heroic woman Carlotta. This great freedom fighter and the martyr of our liberation struggles against imperialism and colonialism. Carlotta was the first slave woman to lead the first slave insurrection against the Spaniard imperialism and colonialism in Cuba. She was brought in chains to this glorious Caribbean Island as a child and forced into slavery to work in the sugar plantations of the Triumvarato in the Matanzas province. The most humble province that hosted the historic and last congress of our own Communist Party in the underground in 1989.
The heroic woman of the African continent Carlota was captured and brutally executed by the Spaniards landlords, for having demanded the freedom and equality of our brothers and sisters, forcefully captured as slaves by imperialism and colonialism into the Americas.
She was tied to several horses that were forced to run in opposing directions, badly tortured, broken and disfigured, and without mercy shot to death. As a gesture of appreciation to the contributions of this extraordinary slave woman from the African continent, the Commander in Chief coded the massive military operation by the revolutionary forces of Cuba in Angola as Operation Carlotta.
This is a beautiful episode of the most profound historical link between the African continent and the people of Cuba.Over one million African slaves arrived on the Island to work in the sugar plantations under horrible working conditions. The objective conditions they found themselves in necessitated their combined effort with the indigenous people of Cuba to end the centuries of slavery and ignominy.The national hero of the Cuban war of independence Jose Marti described this brutal form of barbarity when he said" the slavery of men is the world greatest sorrow".
We narrate this historical context to defeat the notorious intentions by the Democratic Alliance to rewrite the history of the struggles of the people of our country. Forty thousands Cuban combatants, Nine hundred and ninety eight tanks, six hundred armoured transport vehicles, one thousand and six hundred artillery pieces, mortars and anti aircraft defense deployed by the Cuban revolutionary government at the battle side of Cuito Cuanavale, was the most heroic bastion that collapsed the most destructive and cruel, repressive and racist Apartheid regime on our mother continent.
In December 1977 during the first congress of the MPLA, the leader of the Cuban revolution Raul Castro in his address to the plenary had to say the following profound words" the day our presence here is no longer necessary, only the people of Angola will be able to issue that order.
And when the Cubans here for that purpose withdraw from Angola, we will take with us neither oil,nor diamonds,nor coffee, nor anything else. All that we will take with us is the indestructible friendship of this great people, and the remains of our dead".
Consistent with this rare and extraordinary traditions of international solidarity and commitment to the noble cause of the international working class struggles, as a symbolic gesture, during a solemn welcome ceremony to the first Cuban international contingents to return back from Angola, after the victorious battle of Cuito Cuanavale, President Raul Castro has again to say the following revolutionary exposition" we placed our trust in you. Welcome back, comrades. The homeland receives you gratefully and we are proud of you".
Since the great historic rare moment of the triumph of the Cuban revolution and the subsequent declaration of the socialist character of the revolution at the battle of Playa Giron, over three hundred and sixty thousands Cuban internationalists fought side by side with the people of the African continent in the wars of liberation struggles for independence. Two thousands of these rare heroic spices from the beautiful revolutionary Island perished and shed their blood to fertilize our soil for the noble cause our future.The Cuban blood was shed on our soil alongside our own in the Congo, Guinea Bissau, Angola, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa.
Over thirty three thousands students from our continent has graduated in Cuba in a variety of disciplines since the revolution led by Fidel. The revolution has contributed immensely to build the capacity of our human capital especially in the field of health, education, agriculture,sports, construction and many others. This number of the Cuban internationalists has grown tremendously from the no of the first fifty five volunteers sent to Algeria in 1963.
Currently over fifty five thousands students from hundred and six countries of the world are receiving training from Cuban professors either in Cuba or in their respective countries. From this number of magnitude over twenty five students from the third world countries are currently studying medicine in Cuba. From this, are one thousand and two hundred students from our country whom the Democratic Party is instigating them to abandon their studies.
The revolution has already trained three hundred and sixty seven qualified student doctors who are presently working in the far flanked rural villages across the country. What has distinguished these graduates of our revolution from the rest is that they are the first to volunteer to work in the most remote parts of our country to serve our people. The project to train the South African students in Cuba and the Cuban doctors to assist our people in our country, is the blessing of the two most renowned revolutionaries of our century, our struggle icon and former President Nelson Mandela and the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro.
Our two most revered revolutionaries of our century have taught the world that solidarity is the most generous gesture to advance the noble cause of humanity. The Cuban revolution remains to be the most exemplary school and an inexhaustible source of inspiration. We trust the generosity of its fulfilling acts of human solidarity.
Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador to Cuba and the former provincial secretary of the SACP in Limpopo, writing this article in his personal capacity.
SACP statement on the Minister of Finance`s Budget announcement
The SACP notes the context of the continued crisis of global capitalism whose effects will be felt, according to Minister Gordhan, for at least 3 to 5 more years. This is the fundamental context in which the Minister announced a tighter budget. Notwithstanding these realities, we welcome the fact that, despite reduced revenue, many of the major pillars of expenditure including infrastructure, education and health-care are maintained. Although the Minister did not explicitly say so, the budget`s stance has rejected a path of austerity disastrously followed by many countries in Europe. However, the SACP is concerned that there was an overemphasis in the Minister`s remarks that maintaining such a stance is dependent upon achieving growth rates of 5%. We believe that maintaining a contra-cyclical stance is precisely the means for achieving sustained, inclusive growth.
The SACP takes note of the proposals announced by the Minister on youth employment tax incentives. We appreciate the assurances that these will be located within the package of measures being developed in the proposed Youth Employment Accord, and the assurances that the concerns of organised labour about displacement of existing workers will be respected. However, the SACP believes that it will be necessary for social partners to engage with the details to ensure that these assurances materialise in practice.
The SACP notes that while exports increased by only 1%, imports rose by 7%. This underscores the extent to which we remain on a consumption rather than a productive sector driven growth path. Apart from promoting exports and requiring finance by short-term capital inflows, our trade imbalance critically requires active interventions to limit imports particularly of illegal imports and dumped goods from other economies in the interests of promoting jobs in SA and the development of value-added productive sectors locally. In this context we welcome continued support for industrial projects, and the indications provided by the Minister that a number of major investments in value added projects in the real economy remain on track.
The SACP welcomes the announced expenditure review to control waste and the related steps to setting up a Chief Procurement Office to eradicate corruption. However populating this initiative with only private sector people gives a false impression that there is no corruption in the the private sector. In fact the recently exposed corrupt collusion by large private construction companies shows that we must look for principled people everywhere, in the public, private and NGO sectors. In a similar vein we warmly welcome the move to deal decisively with large multinationals that do not pay taxes in the countries in which they operate and in which they make their money. Likewise, we commend the initiatives of SARS to closely audit companies that are beneficiaries of government tenders and contracts to assess whether they are paying their share of tax in return.
Other positive elements in the budget speech include:
- Announcements about the BRICS-led development bank and proposals to pool resources for, amongst other things, the insurance of trade. Initiatives of this kind can potentially support a major global re-positioning of SA; and
- The continued commitment to fund the NHI, while noting the need to remain vigilant about the announced processes to finance the NHI.
Finally, in the context of the SACP`s commitment to re-invigorating the financial sector campaign, we welcome the announced measures to limit access to garnishee orders for those making unsecured loans. However, the SACP is of the view that there remains a need for a major and much more comprehensive strategy to address ballooning, unsecured credit, particularly where this involves preying on the vulnerabilities of working people and the poor.
Issued by the SACP
