The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,
 

“The ANC has morphed from a liberation movement into a criminal syndicate”. This quote from senior political journalist Bhekisisa Mncube, whose new book The Ramaphosa Chronicles launches later this month. He exposes the graft at the top and how Bosasa (the Watson family business that benefitted so irregularly from multiple State tenders with their corrupt modus operandi) took advantage of key ANC big-shots. Examples highlighted are Dudu Myeni with her new Gucci handbag filled with R300,000-00 in cash notes,  Nomvula Mokonyane with R50,000.00 per month paid to her in cash by the Watson brothers and she telling Judge Zondo she did not know who paid for her lavish birthday party that went on until the early hours of the morning at a fancy hotel, with the Bosasa big shots present. We all know that the Jacob Zuma Trust benefited monthly from large cash deposits and then Mnube points out how the children of those privileged politicians benefited. Then we also have Gwede Mantashe wanting to take the report of the Commission on review even though he admitted to Judge Zondo to having received free services from Bosasa with security systems in all of his three homes while he was Sec-General of the ANC. Do you have three homes? 

The lack of ethics of these big shots is nothing less than shameful.

Bosasa scored more than R2.3 Billion in State tenders. When a thousand million= 1 billion, you can give away quite a few million when those State contracts keep rolling in and the Party top-brass just smile and say thank you.

What is patently clear is that the ANC is rotten to the core and must be replaced as the governing party.

A question: will Ramaphosa make Mantashe, a loyal cadre and the current Mining Minister, step aside? Wouldn’t the RET-faction love that!

Moletsi Mbeki the political analyst brother of Thabo recently addressed a group of professionals, civil servants and politicians. He speaks well and he talks sense. He aired his views on the changes needed to improve the lives of South Africans.

He sees how the voters are abandoning the governing party and he does not believe that the ANC can survive in power after the general election in 2024.

He pointed out that the black majority are rejecting the ANC, the “liberation party,” because it has diverted taxes towards conspicuous consumption benefiting the African (black) elite instead of developing the economy and investing in human capital. This ANC government is “colonial” where they alone benefit.

Mbeki pointed out that after the Presidential investigation into the cause of the July riots last year it is very evident how hollowed out the police, intelligence and other State entities are. I do enjoy listening to this fellow; if anyone speaks truth to power, he does.

Early in the week Ramaphosa called Putin a man of peace and told the press that the whole Ukraine debacle could have been averted if Biden would have agreed to meet with Putin days before the conflict started. The American deputy Sec. of State told Cyril bluntly that no stone was left unturned and the aggression is purely Russia’s. But you know where SA stands on this subject.

The Zuma Foundation jumped on the band wagon and on Sunday issued a statement that echoed that Putin was a man of peace. The statement went on to say that Putin had been very patient with Western forces and that he had been “crystal clear” about the Eastern expansion of NATO into the Ukraine. The ZF said Ukraine is a front being used by the West to bring Russia to its knees. This is how Zapiro sees the government’s position on the war from the Daily Maverick:

Ramaphosa has been out canvassing and selling Ankole cows (very big horns) this weekend. He sold a prize cow (to his brother-in-law) at an auction for R2.1million and then left to go and canvass for a second term as ANC leader. Mpumalanga is right behind him and so is the Eastern Cape and it does look as if he will carry on with a second term. 

Load shedding is back. This whole week we have had disruptive outages. All trains (and there are very few still running) on our lines came to a sudden halt on Tuesday when the outages caused by the poor condition of our power stations and the outrageous copper theft from the local signal station caused all rail services to be cancelled. Eskom could soon reach a point where it can no longer afford to pay for the emergency diesel which keeps the turbines going, News24 reported. The cost of the outages is R1 billion per day. Today Die Burger warns that we are near Stage 7 with these outages and that will mean being without electricity for 13 hours a day.

This cartoon from Rico that goes back three years is still so very pertinent and the sudden move that Rico showed in his drawing— that we are still trying so to avoid is to save the economy by saving Eskom. But now we have this enormous diesel price-hike that spiked this week.

Don’t go to a police station unless you absolutely have to. Rob Rose, editor of the Financial Mail,  tells a story that last week his wife was hijacked and her car was then stolen. It happened very near their kid’s school and equally near to the police station. Who were the last to come to help? Why the police of course. But that was just the beginning of a story that highlights incompetence, corruption and downright laziness. 

Last week the press reported in several articles about the increased funds from the Budget going to the police and Rose points out they need leadership not funds. Millions are lost, no one has an idea where the money has gone and to make things worse the police are completely unaware of what happens to all the fire-arms that get stolen from their police stations. One police station admitted to 75 automatic guns having been stolen !

Lack of training, lack of leadership and generally lack of morale add to the pitiful state of our police.

When the Treasury Director-General (Dondo Mojane) and a top businessman and miner (Neal Froneman) warn in the same week that SA is heading to becoming a failed State, it is time for radical action.  But I fear things here just go on as they did yesterday and the day before. These warnings are serious and they are a loud call for the government to wake up.

Cyril has, actually made some changes in appointments to key governmental committees in the last fortnight, so there is some hope for improvement.  Also the top cop has been given the boot. We will have to wait to see whether they make any difference at all.

Iqbal Survé, he who heads up many of the rags that used to be wonderful newspapers, has run to the Competition Tribunal to complain about all the major banks that refuse to do any business at all with any of his companies. Typically he is playing the victim and he argues that the banks are anti him because his companies are black owned and black managed. Survé alleges that the big banks have colluded with each other to refuse him facilities but he has provided not one shred of evidence to prove that.  

The  banks have sailed into him saying that what banks do is assess their clients and he and his companies are seen as high risk. With the PIC suing his companies for the billions that they owe and with the several “unusual” transactions that banks have noticed being transacted by his companies, this view is totally justified.

Some very good news is that at last we are seeing the law catch-up with ANC big shots. Yesterday the Chairperson of the ANC Women’s League, ex-cabinet Minister and permanent sour puss, Bathabile Dlamini was found guilty of perjury. She lied in court and has been found out. It’s not her first sentence either. 

In court to “support” her in the benches were the RET (Radical Economic Transformation) big shots Ace Magashule, Tony Yengeni, Carl Niehaus and Supra Mahumapelo.  The only missing top member of the RET not in court to support this liar was Jacob Zuma.

What a blood nose they all received!

Sentence will be passed on the 1st April and the State has asked for a substantial prison period.

The Public Prosecutor received another “judicial black eye” this week. The Constitutional Court on Wednesday dismissed public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s bid to rescind, or reverse, its own judgment that set aside her CR17 report, saying in a terse two-line order that “no case has been made out for rescission”.

Enough already, she is not good enough to do her job and she must go. Parliament will take about 7 months to get rid of her but it will happen.

Then the board of the Daily Lottery has been suspended (for stealing money, of course). This matter is running but the SIU (Special Investigating Unit) is onto this one.  

Dennis, that character of note was away in Gauteng for the weekend. He tells an interesting story about potholes up there. Using a GPS to find a destination the GPS tells you not only to turn right but when you do to look out for the large hole in the road after you have turned. 

What does this tell you about ANC service delivery to its people?

Sport this week was a little different. The coach wasn’t on the couch to watch with me, Kareen was. The sister of the world champion is a huge Man U fan and she will tell you that it’s not easy being a United fan. They were thrashed 4-1 on Sunday evening by their neighbours who really look good for the title this year.

Spurs played late on Monday evening and had an easy victory (I don’t write that often) against struggling Everton. After the game Michael, from Toronto, as expected wrote to tell me it’s not easy being an Everton fan.

As always,                                                                                        

Gerald