The first is that President Zuma, and, by implication, the
rest of his bloated Cabinet – numbering about one hundred incompetents,
including Ministers and Deputy Ministers – simply do not understand one of the
most basic and most important rules of management, the requirement to monitor
potential threats and problems, and take preemptive action to prevent them
materializing. Zuma declared that ‘this is a funny sort of democracy’, in which
people are found guilty of a crime before they have committed the crime. It is
clear that he does not understand the difference between what has happened and
what he is describing. Any Managing Director of a company, large or small, who
waits for the clearly forespelled result of a course of conduct to materialize
before taking action to prevent that result would be thrown out of office, if
the Board and the shareholders had the time to do so before the company became
bankrupt. Such a method of management is clearly in breach of one of the most
basic principles of management, and represents a level of managerial
incompetence that one would be surprised to find in even the smallest and
meanest of business.
The second reason is that Zuma has clearly demonstrated a
desire, probably an imperative, to retain the goodwill of Bathabile Dlamini, a
woman who has made clear on more than one occasion her disdain for the law, or
her Oath of Office, and for her duty to the people of South Africa, as well as
her support. The background to this seems to be partly her support for his
chosen candidate as his successor as President, Nkosozana Dlamini Zuma (note
the names!), who, he hopes, will protect him from the 783 criminal charges hanging
over his head, as well as the several more that will be added as a result of
his conduct during his Presidency. If Minister Dlamini goes, so will go his
hopes of being able to avoid the need to take other action to fend off his loss
of freedom as well as the loss of the ill-gotten gains he has accumulated
during his Presidency. One wonders whether his inaction during the build up to
the present crisis was not intended to permit, if not encourage, the riots and
civil disorder that would inevitably ensue if the 17 000 000 social
grants were not paid on time! The realization of that crisis would present a
perfect reason for the declaration of a State of Emergency by Zuma, leading to
a suspension of Parliament and rule by decree, a situation he is on record as
desiring, and one which would relieve him of the anxiety attending any stepping
down by him as President, even under the succession of his ex-wife to the
Presidency. There can be no guarantee that she will protect him, or that she,
and the ANC, will win the next election. Of course, the State of Emergency
would allow Zuma to take from Robert Mugabe, a man he greatly admires, the
crown as the worst African Dictator of recent years. Zuma has taken many steps
to prepare for this event, including putting in his pocket the Minister of
Police, the head of the National Prosecuting Authority, the Minister of State
Security, building up of a seven thousand strong personal security body
responsible only to him, with only a part of the Judiciary, including the
Constitutional Court Judges, being excepted. Unfortunately, even the
newly-appointed Public Protector, a woman following in the footsteps of her illustrious
predecessor, appears to have failed the test of strong independence expected of
her.
The picture of South Africa’s future remains gloomy, and has
become darker than it was before, with the only bright spot in the future being
the hope that the ANC will lose enough support in the next election to permit
the election of a new Government which may, hopefully, have enough collective
intelligence, managerial competence and understanding of democracy to turn the
country away from its present course, which is solidly towards becoming another
failed African State. That glimmer of hope is receding as Zuma and his support
base in the ANC demonstrate ever more clearly their determination to hang onto
power at any cost. All the signs are there, and the failure by most of the ANC
politicians to stand up against what even the most obdurate Marxist must see as
a developing disaster reinforces the view that they are determined to take the
country into the abyss. The recent Budget proposed by Pravin Gordhan cannot be
seen as an attempt to change course, and his admission during the Budget speech
that the country, under ANC rule, has enjoyed a GDP growth of less than 1% per
annum in the last twenty-three years must be seen as an admission of failure,
yet there is no sign that any change is being targeted.
The pattern of conduct shown by Zuma in relation to the
Social Grants Crisis (“What crisis?”, Zuma asks. “It has not happened yet!”)
highlights the crises in Health, where the abject lack of management has
resulted in 101 mental health patients dying after being removed from an
established health care unit to unlicensed facilities, without any action being
taken by Government to prevent the crisis developing despite Press coverage for
more than three months, in the SABC, where a dictator was allowed free reign
for more than two years during which the Press and MPs repeatedly raised the
issue, in PRASA, where a Finding by the Public Protector regarding R14 billion
of fraud and corruption has been allowed to fester without any action being
taken by the Minister, in SAA, where the Treasury has been forced to contribute
hundreds of millions of Rands to counter the disastrous and unconstitutional
management by a Zuma favorite, in Eskom, where the country’s economy has been
derailed by successive incompetent managements and the public has been bled dry
to support corrupt dealings and inefficient and ineffective management actions,
despite Press coverage over years, in the sale of the country’s fuel oil
reserves at a price significantly below market while the Minister gives puerile
excuses that not even a schoolchild could believe, with no action being taken
despite extensive Press coverage, in Education, where the schoolchildren have
been fed the third worst education in the world, with the Minister proclaiming
yearly that the adjusted grades show that the standard is improving, in delivery
of public services, where the man, whose house was burned down by a community
incensed at his lack of performance, was then rewarded by Zuma in appointment
as Minister of Finance! The successive Ministers of Finance, proudly lauded as
custodians of the country’s finances, have brought the country to the brink of
a ratings downgrade, with massive growth in deficits and concomitant increases
in the proportion of the massively growing annual Budget being eaten up by
interest payments, strongly declining business confidence resulting in sharply
reducing new investment and foreign direct invest, and a flight of the best and
brightest of our business community to more attractive economies. The mining
industry has shown strong decline as a result of incompetent management of the
sector by another Zuma favorite, a man who is on record as having lied to
Parliament. South Africa, formerly the strongest economy on the continent, is
now one of the weakest. The continent’s growth in GDP, if the calculation excludes
South Africa, would be a full 4,7% higher than it is including South Africa.
It can truly be said that the only successful aspect of ANC rule
has been its ability to convince the illiterate and unknowing mass of voters
that the Party is the sole reason for the social grants being paid! Even the
SACP, the ANC’s alliance partner, has stated that, if the average voter could
read a newspaper, the ANC would no longer be in power.
What can be done to correct this situation?
It is clear that Zuma is beyond any hope of correction. The
fear is growing that he will seize power in an Idi Amin-like coup, unless he
can gain the assurance that he will be protected against retribution for his
criminal conduct. (The word ‘criminal’ is used advisedly. Even though the 783
criminal charges have still to be adjudicated by a Court, Zuma has admitted
before the Constitutional Court that he has knowingly breached the Constitution,
as well as his Oath of Office. Both of such breaches constitute criminal conduct.)
If South Africa can escape the treat of a State of Emergency, so well
foreshadowed by Zuma’s illegal use of the South African National Defence Force
during his State of the Nation Address, the threat of the ANC remains. Zuma
could not have remained in office without the support of at least a significant
number of the senior ANC office bearers, and the unanimous support for Zuma
during Motions of No Confidence and attempts at Impeachment brought against him
is a sure indication that the vast bulk of ANC members have irrevocably hitched
their wagon to his star.
It seems that the only way to bring about change in the
political domination of the ANC will be for foreign investors and Aid Agencies
to recognize that, in providing funds to the ANC Government, they are supporting
a Government that is at least as bad as the Apartheid National Party
Government, and that investments made in the country are supporting something
that will inevitably collapse. Only by starving the ANC Government of funds
will it be possible to ensure that all 17 000 000 social grants
recipients and the hundreds of thousands of ANC cadres holding sinecure
government jobs that add nothing to the economy start to understand that their
best interests lie in ensuring that an honest Government takes power.
An educated lower-middle class Black man, more than a year
ago, stated that he and a number of his friends believed that Jacob Zuma was
truly the Anti-Christ. He could not understand why any human could do what
Jacob Zuma and his associates are doing to the people they were elected to
represent. Discrete questioning seems to be indicative that the belief is gaining
ground. One can only hope that the voters and the honest and good ANC members
will act on that conviction before it becomes a fait accompli.
Postscript
Since writing this article, the public has been delighted to
hear that the Constitutional Court has delivered judgment in the case brought
against SASSA by the Black Sash. The Court had previously described the
situation as a ‘crisis’, a description that is exactly opposite to what both
the Minister and the President described it to be, and now ordered Bathabile
Dlamini, the Minister, to provide an affidavit as to why she personally should
not be ordered to pay the costs of the action. That will be a substantial sum,
although not nearly enough to compensate the public for the lies, the
obfuscations, the denials and the incompetence of the Minister. It is, most
tellingly, a clear indicator of the hardening of the attitude of the
Constitutional Court to the actions of the various Ministers in the Government,
led by Jacob Zuma’s insult to the Court when, after a lengthy delay, he ‘apologized’
to the public for the confusion they had suffered in their misunderstanding of
his honest intention to repay the funds he had stolen from the public to build
his ‘mansion’ at Nkandla. One can only hope that the costs will be on a penalty
scale, to drive home to the Minister and her partners in malfeasance that they
are the servants of the people, appointed on their behalf and paid by them to
do the job that is described. It is to be hoped that the numerous other cases
brought by or against Ministers and the President will incur similar costs
Orders, particularly the Review brought by Jacob Zuma against the Finding by
the Public Protector in the matter of State Capture.
No comments:
Post a Comment