{"id":2549,"date":"2017-08-01T12:28:29","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T09:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anticorr.media\/?p=2549"},"modified":"2017-08-10T11:12:40","modified_gmt":"2017-08-10T08:12:40","slug":"veteran-zhurnalistiki-rasskazal-o-korrupcionnom-nasledii-pravyashhej-partii-yuar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anticorr.media\/en\/veteran-zhurnalistiki-rasskazal-o-korrupcionnom-nasledii-pravyashhej-partii-yuar\/","title":{"rendered":"Corruption: How the ANC shapes up against the NP \u2013 Ed Herbst"},"content":{"rendered":"

This material belongs to: BizNews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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African National Congress. Source: BizNews.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Using his 49 years of covering the South African<\/a> story, Ed Herbst<\/a> makes some telling\u00a0comparisons and observations on corruption and service delivery<\/a>\u00a0pre, and post 1994 \u2013 which hardly leaves the\u00a0current ruling party smelling of roses<\/a>. The word malodorous and that famous line from Hamlet about, \u2018there\u2019s something rotten in the State of Denmark,\u2019 come more easily to mind. Herbst picks out the common themes that defined and define the former and current regimes. He draws out what sets them apart, using concrete examples while sparing neither the opprobrium they so richly deserve. The punch line, however, is that at no time did the National Party<\/a> come close to the current scale of rampant and wholesale corruption. When it comes to service delivery, the skills and competence levels are also worlds apart. Then, of course, there\u2019s the chart-topper and all-time favourite: accountability. Herbst cites examples of skulduggery gone unpunished that make you wonder just what it will take to claw our way back. It makes me realise just how vital institutional knowledge is in creating a balanced picture of where we are. The world inhabited by lesser-questioning and inexperienced youthful commentators are so much narrower and smaller and cannot come close to the perspective provided here.<\/strong> \u2013 Chris Bateman<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ed Herbst*<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The NP promoted and prosecuted a political system which oppressed and disfigured this country, and its security apparatus did far worse. But it was not so forgiving of its own members who looted public office for personal ends. And to the extent that it turned a blind eye, it did not interfere when the departments of justice and correctional services indicted and processed its members, some of them very prominent indeed.<\/p>\n

We should hardly mourn the loss of that political system. But in celebrating the democracy which replaced it, we should not avert our gaze from the undertow that came in its wake: the rapaciousness of public life and the lack of consequences for leading transgressors. Unaddressed, these might soon capsize the ship of state itself.”<\/p>\n

Tony Leon\u00a0Business Day<\/a>\u00a020\/8\/2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Veteran journalist Ed Herbst. Source: BizNews.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Cape Town<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0Owl Club<\/a>\u00a0traces its origins to 1894 and I was invited to be the guest speaker at its most recent monthly meeting. Later in the evening, after my talk \u2013 which sought to compare corruption in the National Party and subsequent ANC<\/a>\u00a0(African National Congress) eras \u2013 I was approached by\u00a0Dave Steward<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0He said that in his 30 years as a civil servant during the National Party era he was never offered a bribe and he made a similar point in a\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Business Day\u00a0in 2013:<\/p>\n

“I cannot think of any cabinet minister or directors general who retired as rich men \u2013 certainly not on anything like the scale of so many today.”<\/p>\n

It was a convivial occasion of good companionship and good food leavened with musical interludes by a young baritone from the SA College of Music at UCT<\/a>, Ntando Ngcube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before I left I was asked to sign a venerable volume which contains the signatures of the hundreds of guest speakers who had preceded me \u2013 among them Mark Twain and Jan Smuts<\/a>, who was a member of the club.<\/p>\n

I append below a precis of my talk:<\/p>\n

“This talk is based on my personal and subjective\u00a0perceptions gleaned in a continuing 49-year career in journalism.<\/p>\n

Its essence is my belief, rightly or wrongly, that corruption during the National Party era was long-term, Tammany Hall<\/a> stuff using insider information on government-funded projects to profit a few years down the line. The government\u2019s announcement in the late 1960s that a steel factory would be built at Newcastle<\/a> provided an example.<\/p>\n

I started my news career as a photographer on the\u00a0Natal Witness<\/a>\u00a0in 1968 and this story starts when I was sent on assignment to follow up a tip-off about two years later about the building of the Iscor foundry in Newcastle<\/a> \u2013 now run by\u00a0ArcelorMittal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At that time black people were not allowed to work as brick layers in terms of the job reservation laws of the era. This created a problem for Iscor because there were not enough white bricklayers available to build the factory and the houses needed for staff.<\/p>\n

The problem was solved by employing black bricklayers but giving them garden trowels which had been hammered flat. Because they were not using conventional bricklayer tools, they supposedly did not qualify, in a technical sense, as bricklayers according to a convenient National Party rationale which was suffused with contemporary political sophistry.<\/p>\n

I thus found myself lying in long grass on the perimeter of the project with a \u00a0telephoto lens filming black bricklayers using garden trowels but that is not the essence of this talk.<\/p>\n

The National Party took a decision to build the Iscor Newcastle foundry in May 1969 and production started in 1971.<\/p>\n

During my visit, Newcastle residents told me that a few weeks before the announcement that Iscor would build a foundry in Newcastle, people who were not known to locals started buying up properties in the town at what seemed like exceptionally favourable prices. When the announcement came, townspeople realised they had been duped.”<\/p>\n

Hitachi scam<\/b><\/h3>\n

“The property purchasers were later discovered to be employees of a company which had several National Party ministers on its board at the time and that company profited handsomely from the subterfuge \u2013 much as its modern day equivalent,\u00a0Chancellor House<\/a>\u00a0profited from the Hitachi boiler scam<\/a> decades later at Medupi<\/a>\u00a0(power station).<\/p>\n

I have been told that by the time the announcement was made in the 1970s that an air force base would be built at Hoedspruit<\/a>, the farms utilised by the state for this purpose had been bought several years before by people close to the military establishment and I have heard that the same principle applied to properties surrounding Jozini Dam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That is speculative conjecture based on hearsay but there can be no doubt that corruption at municipal government level during the National Party era and in our state-owned enterprises was virtually non-existent when compared with what has happened \u00a0since 1994 and what is\u00a0happening<\/a>\u00a0at present.”<\/p>\n

Pervasive corruption<\/b><\/h3>\n

“The\u00a0current corruption<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0municipal level<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0pervasive<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0systemic<\/a>\u00a0and this did not occur during the National Party era. The looting of more than R2 billion between 2003 and 2006 \u2013 when the ANC controlled the Cape Town municipality \u2013 through tender scams like Big Bay<\/a>, Jewellery City<\/a>, N2 Gateway<\/a>, Thubelisha Homes<\/a> and BTH Construction<\/a> was unprecedented and only ended when the people of Cape Town chose to rid themselves of the ANC scoundrels at the ballot box. The same ANC looting occurred at\u00a0provincial level<\/a>\u00a0in the Western Cape<\/a> \u2013 to the\u00a0revulsion<\/a>\u00a0of a few ANC MEC<\/a>\u2019s. \u00a0In municipalities like Johannesburg<\/a>, DA<\/a> (Democratic Alliance<\/a>) politicians like Herman Mashaba<\/a> are now beginning to uncover the\u00a0extraordinary extent<\/a>\u00a0of corruption that occurred for two decades under the\u00a0crooked-to-the-core<\/a>\u00a0creators of Africa\u2019s newest kleptocracy.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0on the BusinessTech<\/a> website highlights the fact that 19 of the worst-administered municipalities in South Africa are controlled by what is now known as Lootfully House and nine out of ten of the best-run municipalities are controlled by DA councils.<\/p>\n

\"\"There are various ways to measure then-and-now corruption and the consequences, particularly for the poor and Eskom<\/a> provides a useful example.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s the National Party government built power stations like Taaibos<\/a>, Highveld<\/a>, Komati<\/a>, Camden<\/a>, Hendrina<\/a>, Grootvlei<\/a> and Kriel<\/a> on time and within budget.”<\/p>\n

Eskom\u2019s ANC corruption<\/b><\/h3>\n

“Contrast that with Medupi. Work started in 2008 and the last of six turbines were supposed to be operational by 2015 \u2013 it now looks like 2021.<\/p>\n

Projected cost in 2008 was R69 billion \u2013 it is now more than R200 billion.<\/p>\n

\"\"There were no large scale electricity failures before 1994 \u2013 even\u00a0Ben Ngubane<\/a>, Brian Molefe<\/a>, Matshela Koko<\/a>, Anoj Singh<\/a> (and all their snouting predecessors) would have to concede that.<\/p>\n

Under the National Party government the trains ran on time and weren\u2019t routinely\u00a0set alight<\/a>. Back then we did have a specialised arm of the police called the Railway Police<\/a> but we did not have the unused CCTV technology now available to the ANC. Who benefits from train sabotage other than the taxi industry and why do the criminals responsible never face justice?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take another then-and-now measure \u2013 presidential houses. Compare P W Botha<\/a>\u2019s modest home\u00a0Die Anker<\/a>\u00a0which he bought with a bank loan and paid off over decades like everyone else and Nkandla<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

ANC wives<\/b><\/h3>\n

“What about the wives?<\/p>\n

I am unaware of any National Party politician\u2019s wife being charged or going to jail.<\/p>\n

Under the ANC in 2011 we have had\u00a0Sheryl Cwele<\/a>, the wife of our then State Security minister<\/a> Siyabonga Cwele<\/a>, being sentenced to 12 years in jail for drug trafficking and in 2014 we had\u00a0Portia Sizane<\/a>, wife of Stone, former ANC chief<\/a> whip and now our ambassador to Germany, appearing in court on 16 counts of fraud, and 15 of money laundering relating to a ghost teacher scam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Siyabonga Cwele. Source: BizNews.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And talking of drug trafficking, I can\u2019t recall any\u00a0convicted drug dealer<\/a>\u00a0being employed in the diplomatic service during the National Party era.”<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take education<\/h3>\n

“Wendy Luhabe<\/a> and Mamphela Ramphele<\/a> were the first to suggest that the quality of education was better under the apartheid government, sentiments that Wits<\/a> (University of Witwatersrand<\/a>) academic\u00a0Rabelani Dagada<\/a>\u00a0concurs with. The National Party did not, however, have to contend with\u00a0Sadtu<\/a>\u00a0and it did not have to contend with a teaching\u00a0work ethic<\/a>\u00a0which Sadtu<\/a> and the ANC seem to have no qualms about.<\/p>\n

As a reporter I covered university protests against the National Party\u2019s exclusionary ethnic policies in Pietermaritzburg<\/a> and Cape Town in the 1970s and 80s and no\u00a0property<\/a>\u00a0was\u00a0damaged<\/a>\u00a0and no attempts were made during those protests to\u00a0kill people<\/a>. It is\u00a0different<\/a>\u00a0now \u2013 all part of the ANC\u2019s \u2018good story to tell\u2019.<\/p>\n

Another useful then-and-now corruption comparison is the big scandals that rocked the National Party and the ANC in their different eras. For the Nats it was the Info Scandal<\/a> which ended the political careers of John Vorster<\/a> and Connie Mulder<\/a>. Eschel Rhoodie<\/a> and his cronies partied hard but there is no evidence that they or any of the politicians involved took bribes and backhanders. No political careers were ended by the Arms Deal<\/a> revelations and a lot of people,\u00a0Joe Modise<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Fana Hlongwane<\/a>, to name just two, did very well out of that nefarious saga \u2013 with the full support,\u00a0unsurprisingly<\/a>, of the ANC.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, I can think of no Schabir Shaik<\/a> or Gupta<\/a> equivalents during the National Party era.”<\/p>\n

The ANC\u2019s killing fields<\/b><\/h3>\n

“There is no evidence either to indicate that National Party members hired hitmen to kill\u00a0fellow politicians<\/a>\u00a0in their own party whose jobs and access to tenders they coveted. Under ANC governance \u2013 in KZN<\/a> alone \u2013 sixty people died in suspected political hits between April 2014 and August 2016. Such\u00a0murders<\/a>\u00a0have now become\u00a0so commonplace<\/a>\u00a0that a\u00a0commission of inquiry<\/a>\u00a0has been established to investigate what has become an\u00a0almost weekly<\/a>\u00a0slaughter in which the criminals,\u00a0unsurprisingly<\/a>, never face justice.<\/p>\n

Perhaps government at all levels worked better under the National Party 1) because there was less corruption and 2) because civil servants in an era before\u00a0cadre deployment<\/a>\u00a0were, to a greater extent, better equipped academically and had an appropriate work ethic \u2013 something which\u00a0hardly exists<\/a>\u00a0today. In this connection, Jacob Dlamini<\/a> provides useful insights about the National Party era in his\u00a0book<\/a>\u00a0Native Nostalgia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2006 Tito Mboweni<\/a> praised his Afrikaans Reserve Bank<\/a> staff saying:<\/p>\n

“I have sought to recruit many competent black people, and no sooner have we recruited and trained them than they leave. I get so upset\u2026I am stopping this recruitment of black people. I am okay with my Afrikaners. They stay and do the work, and become experts.”<\/p>\n

As Tony Leon<\/a> points out in the anchor quote to this article a different ethos prevailed within the National Party when compared with the\u00a0current ethos<\/a>\u00a0of the ANC.<\/p>\n