Dewani and other Symptoms of Collapse

Many people are predicting a disaster for South Africa in the coming years, pointing to all of the problems confronting the country, and others, the optimists, are saying that things will be better.  The Australians have a saying, ‘she’ll be right, mate!’  That assumes that there is some sort of natural force that takes care of all the inadequacies and the stupidities of people.  Unfortunately, any realistic assessment of the condition of the country must come to a conclusion that the odds are not on our side. 

·         Eskom:  This organisation (if one could dare to apply that description to a group of arrogant, highly-paid officials all running in different directions) has demonstrated clearly that it lacks any capability to provide the essential electricity, on which practically every economic activity in the country is dependent.  When one assesses the state of economic or industrial development of a country, the usage of electricity is one of the prime indicators.  Eskom has failed to ensure that electricity is available, in adequate and reliable quantities, in consistent voltage, and reliably.  Its predictions of delivery of bulk electricity, from Medupi and Kusile, and from the large number of power stations left over from the bad old days of the Apartheid Government, most of which have become strongly in need of the maintenance that is an essential of any modern productive facility, are more often wrong than right.  Medupi is currently six years behind its original commissioning deadline (probably because the ability of those in charge of the decisions needed more time to optimize the payoffs to themselves!), and even a date set in November for first-stage commissioning in mid-December will be missed by at least a month!  It is hard to believe that a prediction by a Minister can be 100% wrong!  The CEO of Eskom stated unequivocally on Sunday that there would be no more load-shedding for the rest of December, only to have load-shedding again on Monday.  He appeared on television on Monday to assure the public that there would be no load-shedding, only to have the statement cut off mid-stream by load-shedding.  The CEO managed to get a prediction of two minutes into the future wrong!  The spokesman for Eskom subsequently admitted that the Open Cycle Gas Turbines had failed because someone in the organisation had forgotten to order the fuel on time!  Eskom manages to supply a fluctuating voltage for a large proportion of the short times that it actually delivers electricity, causing huge problems for voltage-sensitive equipment.  That, together with the continuing failure, as well as the planned (?) load-shedding has brought South Africa to an unprecedented low on the scale of desirable investment locations.  The worst of it is that one cannot gain any confidence in the predictions and promises made by Eskom executives or the relevant Ministers.  They have all shown clearly that they have no clue of how to manage a vital element of the economy.

·         South Africa Airways:  No-one is willing to believe the weighty statements made by the executives and the Minister that this symbol of national pride (?) will turn around soon, and no longer require support from the State’s coffers.  An annual demand for another R600 million to ‘support the turnaround plan’ has become routine, as have promises that this will be the last time.  There has been no turnaround!  The only change has been that the annual performance bonuses (?) have increased every year, new senior management has been appointed, to allow them to dip their snouts into the gravy without doing anything to improve the situation, and the losses have mounted.  The saving grace in this situation, is that the accounts of the State-owned body have not been completed or issued for three years!  While that has spared us the depression of reading a story of incompetence, it has induced in thinking taxpayers a suspicion of the reasons for the delay.  If SAA had been a Stock Exchange-listed company, even the powerless JSE might have been induced to delist its shares, the Revenue Services would have commenced criminal action against the company, and the shareholders would have fired the entire Board and demanded that the new Directors take immediate steps to appoint competent managers to return the company to profitability.  In Germany, the senior executives would be in jail for managing a business that is manifestly incapable of paying its debts.  SAA would, in any situation with capable and knowledgeable management of the country, have been closed dow or privatised at least ten years ago.

·         South African Police Services:  Stories abound of wrongful arrests being made by the Police, of awaiting-trial prisoners walking away from custody, of people languishing in prisons for years as a result of the Police failing to complete their investigations, of valuables, such as watches, being stolen from crime scenes under Police control (?), of suspected murderers being brought to trial to face woefully inadequate accusations and unsupported allegations, of gangs rampaging through the townships of Cape Town and Durban, undeterred by the presence of the Police, who know that these conditions exist, yet fail to provide adequate staffing at the local Police Stations, in numbers or in competence, of rape victims being ignored when they lay charges against the rapists or their files being ‘lost’, of Police brutality in beating or killing innocent people.  The Police in South Africa have earned the reputation of being one of the least competent forces of law and order in the civilized world, and there are no credible signs that there is any improvement on the horizon.

·         National Prosecuting Authority:  The withdrawal of the charge of murder against Shrien Dewani was hailed by a British journalist as evidence that the criminal system in South Africa is fair.  One may be pardoned for wondering how much that journalist was paid to make that statement.  A far more apt pronouncement would have been that the case should never have been brought to Court with the evidence at hand.  It demonstrated very clearly that there is a total lack of competence at the head of an important body.  That is no surprise, given the handling of the numerous criminal charges against Jacob Zuma.  The expenditure of many millions to date, including the R2 000 000 to fly the accused from Britain in a chartered aircraft, the huge legal cost of the lengthy extradition processes in Britain, the cost of two months evaluation in a mental facility, and the as-yet unknown amount of damages that Dewani will probably claim for his arrest, extradition and harassment over a period of four years to face a charge that, in the opinion of most (uninformed) members of the public should have been a walkover, should have been handed to our honourable State President as a contribution to the upgrade of his private home.  That would have brought less ridicule to the nation!

·         State President:  The State President’s handling of numerous matters have been the subject of intense criticism over many years, culminating in the Nkandla affair, which has showed conclusively that he is either a liar or a fool, and, in any event, that he has no ability to manage the affairs of the nation, entrusted to him by the voters.  He has excused the lack of performance of his Government over the years, claiming that the demonstrated failings were the fault of the ‘previous Administration’, completely ignoring that he was the head of that previous administration, and that his Party has constituted the totality of those ‘previous Administrations’ for the past two decades.  His most recent tactic against the flood of criticism and allegations has been simply to disappear from the scene, visiting Russia and China and Australia, making weighty promises to the Party faithful at rallies and ceremonies, where he does not have to face his critics and detractors, but always carefully avoiding any answers to the voters and their representatives, the people who are entitled to know, because they pay his salaries and expenses.  It is perhaps amusing to note that, after a speech in which he urged the people to cut unnecessary expenditure, he flew to his home at Nkandla (the improvement of which at a cost of R245 000 000 he professed not to have noticed!) at a cost of R320 000!

·         Departments of Education:  The continuing underperformance of these vital elements of a modern economy has become routine.  More money is spent every year for less result.  Tens of thousands of children are being sent out into the world with an education that is, to say the least, inferior.  They are being handed Matriculation Certificates that have the value, at best, that they attended (possibly only some of the time!) school for at least twelve years.  Employers know that the Matric has very little value, with many of the bearers being close to illiterate and probably innumerate.  It has no value in the wider world, and the degrees that are based on them have been so degraded in the eyes of the civilized world as to have little value greater than a joke.  The only plausible explanations for the acceptance by the Government of this state of affairs are that those managing (?) the country do not know any better, or that there is a conscious attempt to dumb down the voter base, to ensure a continuing supply of unknowing voters to support the ruling Party.

·         South African Broadcasting Service:  It comes as no surprise that the Chair of the Board and the CEO do not have the qualifications they claimed and stated unequivocally to possess.  After all, anyone who has attempted to enter into a correspondence with the SABC will know that there is no-one in that building who is able to read or write!  How else does one explain that an attempt to cancel a TV licence that has carried on for ten years after the first notification of cancellation has been given, without any response from the SABC, other than computer-generated accounts showing amounts of over five thousand Rands, or computer-generated threatening letters from their collection agents?  The fact that they could have been given their jobs without their qualifications being checked appears to indicate the same absolute lack of management capability of those in control (?).  If the same situation had occurred in a bank or an insurance company, heads would roll.  They are required by law to have only ‘fit and proper’ persons in responsible positions!  In Government-owned bodies, and in Government itself, it does not seem to be a requirement that ‘fit and proper persons’ are in control! 

·         Civil Service:  No-one who has ever written to any Government body could expect that a result will ensue, unless the request is written on the back of a large cheque payable to Bearer!  The telephone is almost never answered, and, when it is, the person answering has virtually any ability to provide the information requested.  Any communication with a more senior person is shunted from desk to desk, leading to the quest being abandoned in despair.  The people at the bottom of the organization show no interest or desire to assist, and those at the top are adept in the skill of delay, unless, of course, there is a benefit offered to them or the company which will facilitate the matter, owned by their wives!

In summary, any reasoned evaluation of the management capability of South Africa Inc. must come to the conclusion that it does not exist.  The result of this can easily be forecast.  South Africa will continue to decline, in world rankings for virtually everything that makes living in the country a good experience, in its attractiveness as an investment destination, in its ability to produce a new generation of leaders who understand what is required to make a country work, in the honesty or competence of its Government and the bodies of Government.