Is Cyril Ramaphosa rebuilding South Africa?
My views on the man have since changed. He was a QUITE deputy president from 2014 to 2018 when Zuma was pillaging the country’s resources. It was all Zuma’s fault, or so we thought.
a) Less than 2 years into his presidency over R100 million COVID-19 relief funds have been stolen. These funds were stolen by non-other than the husband to the president’s spokesperson.
b) There is a 2018 report on State Security Agency sitting on the president’s in-tray. This report paints a grim picture of an intelligence organisation that is politicised and sometimes operates beyond its mandate. It talks of unvetted public officials who occupy senior positions in State Owned Enterprises. Review Panel State Security Agency
c) There is also a report on VBS Mutual Bank The Great Bank Heist, and only 8 people have been arrested so far. The politically connected are still roaming the streets. According to Advocate Motau who investigated corruption in the bank:
There is hardly a person in its employ in any position of authority who is not in some way, or other complicit.
Thieves steal live wires and railway tracks on broad daylight, bringing the whole railway network to a standstill in matter of two months.
One can sympathise with the president and he does appear to have good intentions when it comes to rooting out corruption. But his good intentions have simply been overtaken by even more brazen acts of corruption.
I’m afraid, our diagnosis of the problem is not Zuma, and the tweet below expresses my sentiments.
The president can only do so much, he doesn’t seem to have the power to build anything. The ANC is the ultimate problem for this country. Smaller municipalities have simply collapsed, Standardton in Mpumalanga is untraversable due to potholes, Zeerust in Northwest has no clean water, all former mining towns are either drug dens or simply shadows of their former selves.
The president has had ample opportunity to get rid of incompetent ministers, he hasn’t done it ,because he’s afraid to upset the ANC. Cabinet ministers are yet to sign performance agreements, Eskom has yet to deliver reliable energy. We keep bailing out the South African Airways and this has been happening for the past 27 years. Of course Zuma took us 10 years back by handing over his powers to the Guptas. By so doing he provided a fertile ground for the rest of his cronies to do as they please. The rebuilding of South Africa requires serious political will. I afraid I don’t see it.
Next time I will write about how the opposition parties have also failed South Africa.
EDIT:
Some housekeeping. I see many have commented that the president “has nothing to do with VBS looting”. The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) was established for purposes of investigation of all transactions involving the state. People who have read the report would know that a number of municipalities actually deposited money to VBS bank despite treasury warning them not to. Funds stolen from the bank aren’t limited to individual investments but municipal funds were looted. That means your rates & taxes meant for service delivery were in fact diverted to the bank.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.