How Easy ir is to Spend Taxpayers' Money

 

How easy it is to spend taxpayers' money! Suspend a 'worker' for 2 to 10 years on full pay, and then give them a golden handshake. Of course, governments, and particularly Ministers and Presidents, know that the supply of funds from taxpayers is inexhaustible. Until it stops! And even then, they continue to dream, funding their insanities with borrowed money - essentially spending the tax in advance - until reality hits, and then they blame everyone, establish commissions to find excuses for what went wrong, and explain to the voters that they have to wait for the reports, three to five years down the road, before they can fix the problem they created, in the full knowledge that they will create new problems to distract the voters when that time comes. And still they continue to dream!
Ramaphosa bewails the fact that South Africa has not overcome racism, 26 years after the ANC instituted its program of neo-racism, and demands that the Whites accept that BEE, Expropriation without Compensation and downgrading of government's capabilities by cadre deployment, be seen as both necessary and good. The real reasons for the woeful economic performance of the economy under Ramaphosa are BEE, which ensures that any White with skills and ambition goes elsewhere, to a country which values contribution without regard to skin color, Expropriation without Compensation, which ensures that no investor will put his or her money into a gamble, hoping that the government will not see the temptation to enrich its members or buy votes with it, and cadre deployment, which ensures that the civil service is both bloated and overpaid, without delivering any value to the people they 'serve'. Add to that, the fact that the President is a dedicated racist (remember that he propounded the theory at the time of negotiating the Constitution that the best way to get rid of the Whites is to subject them to increasing pressure, to heat the water until the frog jumps out?), as well as an incompetent manager, who learned the words but did not understand the theories and practice behind them, while he 'served' as Director of large corporations, who bought him as a reliable link to the ANC to get things done when and how they needed (remember Marikana?) It is glaringly obvious that Ramaphosa is neither an effective leader, never making decisions until he sees which way the NEC will jump, nor an effective manager, allowing his Ministers to run around like headless chickens while he boasts of 'performance agreements', which have no quantified targets, no rationale (remember the insane regulations about buying open-toe shoes, tee-shirts, discouraging the development of e-commerce, which has been an economy-saver in other countries but in South Africa is considered to be unfair to other retailers, and banning the sale of cigarettes because the 'infection is spread by sharing cigarettes', totally ignoring the other pandemics of AIDS - strongly promoted by the ANC under Mbeki, TB and half a dozen others).

Ramaphosa, and whoever replaces him when NDZ and Ace win the fight, should understand that the conflict in South Africa is the direct result of joblessness - easily over 50% and getting worse - and low investment. Poor people look for scapegoats, and the ANC is very good at pointing the finger at the Whites, who founded, funded and operate the vast majority of businesses that provide the few economically-active, i.e. non-government, jobs (because that is what you do when you gain experience by working your way up in the organization, and what you can’t fo when you have ‘earned’ your fortune by holding an overpaid job (gained by the color of your skin and having political connections, while hiring consultants to do the work you are paid for, while not gaining the experience and skills that come from working your way up the organization).

The ANC has ensured that this pool of skills leaves for better pastures, citing ideological reasons. Unfortunately, people cannot eat ideology, as the Communist bloc found to its horror. People need jobs, prospects for improvement that they can achieve by effort and training, and hope for the future. Ramaphosa cannot offer these.

 

What should the National Prosecuting Authority do?

The NPA in South Africa is as much of a disaster area as the rest of the country. It is incapable of doing the job for which it was established, as is proven by the complete lack of any prosecutions of top-level criminals, never mind its failure to put any of them behind bars, as the country urgently needs. The reasons for this are clear, but the failure of the Director to correct this situation is inexplicable. It may stem from insufficient understanding of the principles of management of an organisation in crisis or, Heaven forbid, from the creep of the infection to the very top levels of this vital body. NPA Director Batohi has complained, several times, that the organisation has been corrupted, to the point where it is incapable of acting effectively. It is known that the virus of corruption has infested every part of government, from the clerk in the Licensing Office in Bedfordview, who takes a bribe of R600 to issue a driving license to a person who cannot pass the sight test, to the (previous) President, but that cannot be a reason to allow it to continue. Surely there are at least a couple of investigators and prosecutors who are both capable and honest left in the NPA, or, if that is not true, somewhere in the country? If there are none in government service who can be trusted, why should private contractors not be used? The argument that the government cannot afford the cost is nonsense – the country cannot afford another four years of the rampant corruption that is now the norm, and that cannot, apparently, be countered by an unwilling government.

What should Batohi do, if she really wants to perform the job for which she is paid?

Let’s analyse the problem.

The problem, as stated by Batohi, is that every case is hijacked, side-lined, confused or simply has vital papers stolen, to make sure that it goes nowhere. There are too many people involved in bringing the case from a report of wrongdoing to the point of successful prosecution. That is not unusual in a business scenario in which the company is highly politicised, with many parties promoting their private agendas. Surely, if  system is not working, the responsible person should either by-pass that system or correct it, by radical means, if necessary. The answer is to do three things simultaneously.

First, follow the evidence. Take a case which is prima facie good, and track who has access to it, who has input and who makes the crucial decisions. Do an evaluation of the correctness of those actions, of where the case goes off the tracks, of what went wrong and why. The Diwani case is an excellent example of a case where, on the facts known to the public, the accused should have been found guilty. He was not, and the public meekly accepted the fact that a man accused of hiring two killers to eliminate his new wife in Cape Town should go free, after the killers had confessed to the crime, and identified the accused, and the SAPS had spent millions on a private jet to fly from the UK, and on psychiatric evaluations which seemed to confirm the public view. The Judge threw the case out for lack of evidence. From a somewhat cynical point of view, there were only three points at which the sure-fire case could have gone wrong: the Police bungled the case so badly that a guilty verdict was impossible; the Prosecutor failed to present a sure-fire case in a professional manner; or the Judge was not competent to understand the facts. The third possibility appears to be very unlikely. The Courts generally have a good reputation for competence, even with the odd blip like Judge Seriti’s apparently purposeful bungling of the Arms Deal investigation. The remaining two elements seem to be more likely, and both are amenable to the oldest form of corruption – buying a person in a critical position. A payment of a few hundred thousand Rands to secure the mismanagement of a prosecution, or of the investigation leading up to it, is cheap in the light of a possible 15 year prison sentence, and the amount of money able to be offered would more than compensate for the lack of promotion or loss of professional esteem. This is even more true in South Africa, where wrongdoing is not seen to be a hindrance to advancement, where it is normal for convicted criminals and those censured by a Judge for dishonesty to be appointed as Ministers of State, while so many either charged with fraud and other dishonesty, even with money laundering and racketeering, have ascended to high office while the charges were hanging.

While the prima facie ‘facts’ are being determined, set up a channel in which the handling of chosen cases can be free of the involvement or influence of those found or suspected to be under suspicion. Feed some carefully selected cases into that channel and monitor them carefully. Fast-track them, so that the process can be watched over an abbreviated timespan, and record carefully who does what, and when, and, most critically, why. Manage the cases on an individual basis. Ensure that every fact that needs to be taken into account is recorded, and document the events of interference, so that the people who have negative influence that is not justified by the facts can be placed in quarantine. Ensure that the facts known to the public are correctly investigated, and question the conclusions.

Third, take the chosen cases to a logical conclusion. By this point, there should be at least three or four important cases that have watertight proof and presentation. Ensure that the people involved at all levels are aware that their performance in these cases will have long-term consequences for each of them personally, either positive or negative. It is not essential that every possible malfeasance of an accused be brought against him or her at this stage – that can be done when they can be interviewed for further charges in orange overalls, when they are less able to buy their way out of trouble. It is only necessary at this time to achieve the first conviction.

By choosing the cases carefully, successful investigations and trials will remove at least several of the corrupt individuals holding levers of power, and reduce the negative influences in future prosecutions, and, most importantly, will restore the belief that the NPA is a body to be feared by criminals. Comparison of effective processes with ineffective ones will provide clues to who is needed in the future, who is capable of development, and who should be discarded, after due investigation of their actions in the past. A separate channel should be established to ensure that the criminal prosecution of those meriting that special distinction is performed effectively, with the effect of cutting the ground from under those working within the system to subvert justice.

The next step is to repeat the process, taking care to ensure that each case enjoys a high probability of success. Each repetition will extend the list of those taken from positions of influence, and will reduce the body of people working against true justice in the country. It is important to understand that even one successful prosecution is a lot better that dozens of prosecutions still in the process, probably for the next few years.

Perhaps Batohi would be well-advised to include an investigation into the actions of her predecessor, who did so much to hollow out the institution she now leads.

While this is going on, Batohi could take a couple of hours to prepare a presentation to Parliament to ask for two new laws.

The first of these will require that the sentence imposed on a person abusing a position of trust be double that of others convicted of that crime. For example, the Chief Accounting Officer of a State Owned Entity who supports, or fails to prevent, a fraud by officers of that entity would be subject to double the prison time for the crime. The law should require that parole cannot be granted until at least the additional time has been served in full. This would prevent the present practice of criminals going free, carried head-high by ANC members to his new position as Head of Political Education in the ANC, after serving only a few months of a five-year sentence for corruption.

The second proposed law will offer indemnity from prosecution to any person who is party to a crime and provides evidence to the SAPS and the NPA which results in the criminal conviction of the counterparties to an act of corruption. This would be coupled with a bar for life against that person doing business with the State, as well as a requirement that he or she reimburses the State for the loss it has suffered. That indemnity will be effective only if the evidence is provided voluntarily and before an action against the person providing it is commenced.

If the NPA continues to bumble along on its present path, without taking any real action against the criminal kingpins who have blighted the South African political scene for so long, if it continues to ignore the exposure by investigative journalists made of criminal acts that have been at the centre of public discourse for years, the citizens will be justified in their belief that the NPA is merely another State body that offers jobs for pals without any expectation that it should perform the tasks for which it exists. It would join the SAPS on the list of those State bodies which have been shown conclusively to be part of the problem in South Africa.

Believing your own Advertising

The Minister of Basic Education spent a lot of time and effort in promoting what her Department has done in the past year, leading any seasoned ANC watcher to understand that the real meat of her presentation still to come, the percentage of learners to pass the Matric examination, was almost certain to be worse than the worst of their expectations.  The excuses, that the number of ‘learners’ writing the examination was greater than it has ever been, and the fevered efforts to ‘save’ those who failed in a single grade for the third time, were no more than window-dressing to draw attention away from the appallingly bad results her Department has achieved, results that will scar many youngsters for the rest of their lives, and do much to damage what little of the South African economy that remains in operation after two decades of ANC bungling.  The stark fact is that the Department of Basic Education, despite having a huge budget at its disposal, has managed to allow, or possibly force, almost 30% of people who have given up as much as a quarter of their lives in an attempt to gain an education that will enable them to become useful, productive members of society.  The significantly better results obtained in the Western Cape, 84,7% passing against a national average of 70,7%, proves that the young people of the nation are capable of producing significantly better than is now being achieved.  The only difference between that Province and the rest of the country that means anything is that it is under the competent management of the DA, rather than the cadre-dominated incompetence of the rest of the country.  When the national average of the private schools is brought into the picture, at better than 90% passing, the true state of the inability of the ANC to provide the country with anything approaching an acceptable level of education is highlighted.  One can only wonder when the ANC voters, all of whom are adversely affected by this incompetence, will start to understand that loyalty to the myth that the ANC has built about itself is destructive, almost to the point of being suicidal.

Of course, all of this ignores the fact that the Matric examination passed by these ‘learners’ is at a much lower level than they could expect in most of the world.  What used to be accepted at face value by the Western world as an indicator of a degree of competence is now treated with suspicion.  Even the Bachelor degrees (those gained after study at a University for at least several years, not the Matric certificate now promoted by the Minister as a Bachelor degree) are treated with suspicion abroad, to the extent that they carry very little credibility in an employment situation.  And with good reason.  The Law Society, not many years ago, reported that Ll B graduates were no longer able to use language effectively!  The ‘increased’ pass rate boasted of by the Minister in years past has been bought at the cost of imposing a lower standard in the examinations.  This has hit South African business hard, and probably accounts for the fact that so many of those with new degrees are not employed – they are probably not capable of doing the work that a Matriculant would easily handle in the years before the ANC stamped its personality on the education system.  The ANC has worked hard to compensate for this inadequacy by imposing the BBEEE regulations, to ensure that a proportion of the ‘previously disadvantaged’ are given employment, no matter how limited their capability is to do a decent job.

The incompetence of the ANC to manage the economy of a once-sophisticated country has been demonstrated repeatedly, in the Eskom debacle, which has set back South African development by years, in the inability (unwillingness?) of the Police to stem the rising tide of crime that has threatened to drown the country, in the inability and demonstrated lack of desire of Parliament to hold the State President to the standards of conduct required by the Constitution, absolving him of any liability in the expenditure of R245 000 000 of State funds on his private home (remember the fatuous statement by Zuma that he was not aware that so much money was being spent on his private property?), in the lack of service by the Post Office (the Bryanston Post Office was closed three months ago, without any notification to renters of Post Office boxes, apart from a single notice in the window, put up a few days ago, saying that the persons expecting post could collect it at the new location, which was expected to ‘open soon’, and giving telephone numbers, neither of which are answered), in the Department of Trade and Industry’s inability, after many months warning, to respond to the American Government’s demand for the dropping of an import duty on chicken, failing which South Africa will be excluded from the benefits of AGOA (the deadline given by President Obama was 30 December 2015, but, of course, we saw fit not to respond in time – the ANC Government appears to be totally incapable of acting on time, even preemptively!), with the probable result that many agricultural and other exports to the USA will become subject to import duties in that country, at a time when South Africa needs every dollar of export sales it can achieve, in the Department of Homeland Affairs’ disastrous insistence on a new visa regime, requiring every applicant for a visa to attend personally at the Consulate (there are two in the entire area of China!), resulting in a loss of foreign tourism to the country at a critical time for the economy, in the arrogant and undemocratic, if not unconstitutional behavior of President Zuma in replacing an internationally-acceptable Minister of Finance with an unknown backbencher (unknown except for his disastrous tenure as Mayor, ending in his house being burnt down by desperate citizens – perhaps not a bad example of how to deal with his boss!), and then backtracking a few days later by reappointing Pravin Gordhan, who was himself sacked a couple of years earlier, presumably for failing to rubber-stamp Zuma’s corruption.  The examples are legion.  It is hard to think of one Government Department that has not committed some act of flagrant stupidity or incompetence, and if one adds corruption on a large scale to the list of qualities not desired in a Government Department or body, the only place to look for a righteous man is in the Western Cape.

Listening to the lengthy explanation of the Minister of Basic Education about the excuses for her Department’s failures, excuses claimed as achievements, one was struck by the fact that she dwelt so extensively on the care and attention given to the ‘progressed learners’, those who were simply advanced to the next grade up after failing for two successive years.  She was proud to state that some 6 000 of those ‘progressed learners’ had passed Matric in 2015, and she promised increased care and attention to them.  It is hard to understand how 6 000 children (probably young adults by then, who have spent at least 15 years clogging up the educational system) can merit so much attention when the remaining three-quarters of a million matriculants, representing the apex of a pyramid of at least ten million(!) struggling pupils in the school system, are struggling under the grossly ineffective educational system!  Surely the place to start any corrective action is where the bulk of the problems lie? 

That seems to be typical of the ANC policies – find a group that commands a lot of publicity at grass-roots level, and lavish money on it.  The publicity, hopefully, will last long enough to carry the Government over to the next crisis, such as the Marikana shootings, which have now resulted in the construction of R110 million of houses.  Fortunately, the more outspoken of those subject to this sort of publicity-directed action are starting to speak out, questioning the basis on which those few chosen to receive such largesse at the expense of the cash-strapped State have been selected.  The answer is probably that they offer Zuma and his cohorts the best photo opportunities!  One would be forgiven for believing that the criteria for action by the ANC cover first the question of which projects can most easily be skimmed for corrupt purposes, then which will be the best to secure the ANC an election victory (as confirmed by the Deputy State President, Cyril Ramaphosa, when he stated that the most important thing for the ANC is to secure an election victory!)  Any other consideration, such as the good of the country, or the creation of an economic structure in which job-creating investors will feel at home, are of secondary importance.

These chickens will come home to roost, and the signs are increasingly strong that the roosting will take place much sooner than the ANC would wish.  Until then, the flight of Capital, the loss of brainpower and experience, the deterrence of investment, the loss of foreign markets, will all continue, at an increasing pace.