WeeklySA_AdminEXPEDIENCY: From Phala Phala to luxury tenders and undeclared benefits, South Africa’s political elite stand accused of feeding a culture of greed that threatens to push the country towards institutional collapse — but the Constitutional Court may yet prove democracy’s last line of defence…
By Sekola Sello
Our country, like the Gadarene swine, looks like it is hurtling to self-destruction. In the Holy Book, we are told how thousands of pigs possessed by the demons or evil spirits rusheden masse to a nearby cliff, threw themselves over into the sea and all died.
The demons of greed and corruption have totally consumed the body politic of our country.
I may be stating the South African reality rather too hyperbolically. Ordinary South Africans have not yet been infected with this disease of corruption.
I am referring to our political leadership, especially those who wield power in the ruling African National Congress. Unfortunately they are the ones who are going to take this country and her people to self-destruction.
The brazen manner in which our politicians continue to loot and plunder the diminishing resources can have only one ending – the total destruction of the country.
Once political expediency trumps constitutionalism, this country will go
over the precipice…
A week hardly passes by without the media exposing a Minister or a senior civil servant caught stealing State resources. The Madlanga Commission is laying bare the malfeasance taking place in Ekurhuleni and Tshwane Metropolitan Municipalities. The Commission is now training its sights on the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.
A few weeks ago News24 reported that Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s family is benefitting unduly from government tenders. This scandal was still fresh in the public domain when we learnt from Daily Maverick how two Ministers are reported to have used their positions to get benefits from the Chinese embassy.
Five members of the ANC top seven – the body that runs the day to day affairs of the party – have a cloud of corruption hanging over their heads.
Let us start with its most senior member, Cyril Ramaphosa. The party President has been embroiled in the Phala Phala scandal for years now. This will not go away.
Like a rotten potato in a bag, the scandal has tarnished the image of several government institutions.
The office of the Public Protector, South African Revenue Service, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Reserve Bank and the ANC took a direct hit over this matter. The National Assembly which is dominated by the ANC has come off worse..
These institutions did not find any wrong doing on the part of the President by keeping undeclared United States dollars under the couches of his Phala Phala Game Farm in Bela Bela, Limpopo province.
This week, the Constitutional Court delivered a thumping body punch to Ramaphosa and these institutions. In simple lay terms the highest court in the land ruled that Ramaphosa has a case to answer.
This ruling negates the position taken by these august bodies and in a sense reaffirms the position taken by former Constitutional Court Head, Justice Sandile Ngcobo, that there was a prima facie case for Ramaphosa to answer.
Justice Ngcobo headed an independent panel which was established by the Speaker of Parliament in 2022 to investigate the Phala Phala burglary.
The South African public became aware of the burglary only after former spy boss, Arthur Fraser, laid charges against the President for concealing the theft which took place two years earlier. He also implied money laundering by the President. Fraser is considered a close associate of Ramaphosa’s political rival, Jacob Zuma and his motives were in all likelihood, politically driven.
The presence of this money at the game farm is shrouded in mystery. The precise amount is not known. The figures range from a few thousand to millions of dollars. Ramaphosa claims the money came from the purchase of buffaloes by a Sudanese businessman. Many people do not buy this story.
In the light of the controversy that ensued following the theft, Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula, was forced to establish an Independent Panel to investigate the matter. The Panel found that there was a prima facie case for Ramaphosa to answer.
Ramaphosa’s Deputy, Mashatile ,is also embroiled in claims that his sons benefitted unduly from government tenders.
Mashatile’s sons have secured lucrative tenders from the Gauteng government. One tender is reported to have doubled from the original amount. His son, Thabiso ,won a fire suppression project for Gauteng hospitals for R46 million which ballooned to R91 million. Critics including the DA claim that the affected hospitals are not fully fire safety compliant.
A consortium which included a company owned by Thabiso and his brother, Tinyiko Mvelase, also won a tender of R836 million to provide fire safety in hospitals nationwide. However, this was cancelled after a forensic investigation by PricewaterhouseCoopers flagged widespread fraud and procurement irregularities.
Not so long ago I stated in this column how ANC chairman, Gwede Mantashe, and first Deputy Secretary-General, Nomvula Mokonyane, are implicated in receiving benefits from Bosasa as a way by this company to secure tenders from the government. There is no need to repeat this.
The Daily Maverick has now exposed two Ministers for wrongdoing. Social Development Minister, Sisisi Tolashe is alleged to have received two SUVs from the Chinese embassy. She claims these two luxury vehicles were donated to the ANC Women’s League and therefore she was not obliged to declare them to Parliament as demanded by law of the National Assembly. The vehicles are registered in the names of her two children. Tell that story to the birds, Ms Tolashe.
Minister-in-the-Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Maropene Ramokgopa, received three SUVs similar to those given to Tolashe. These were also not reported to Parliament as donations to herself.
According to Daily Maverick, Tolashe employed a domestic worker who was paid by the Department of Social Development. As if that was not illegal enough, half of her salary was paid into the bank account of Tolashe’s daughter.
In a country where about sixty percent of our youth are unemployed and millions of the people survive on social grants, the vulgar display of wealth by the nouveau riche is offensive to the sensibilities of the vast majority of our people.
News24 reported how the retired Ekurhuleni City Manager Dr Imogen Mashazi hired a private jet to go shopping in the United Kingdom. Suspended Tshwane Chief Financial Officer Gareth Mnisi (37) has a fleet of luxury vehicles.
One tenderpreneur, Hangwani Maumela, has three Lamborghinis of the same colour. Mashatile owns a property in Constantia, Cape Town, valued at R28.9 million. He often occupies another luxury house valued at R37 million, which he claims belong to his children. In 2017, before he became Deputy President of the country, his girlfriend claimed she was giving her R200 000 (two hundred thousand Rand) monthly allowance.
Historians tell us that the Holy Roman Empire collapsed because of, among other reasons, unbridled corruption.
I did not expect the ANC in the National Assembly to rule against their leader. They always close ranks even to the point of defending the indefensible. They defended Thabo Mbeki in his reckless policies on Aids. They defended Jacob Zuma when he was looting the country. But the fact that such important institutions such as the Public Protector, the NPA, the Reserve Bank, the Revenue
Service and the police found nothing wrong about Phala Phala, boggles the mind. It shows how we are moving dangerously close to self-destruction.
The Constitutional Court ruling has restored my faith in our judiciary. Once political expediency trumps constitutionalism, this country will go over the precipice.
