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Sunday Times columnist Sam Mkokeli nailed it last week with his reference to the African National Congress’s most senior body, the National Executive Committee (NEC) demanding information from public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan on the state of the country’s state-owned enterprises (SOE’s), as though these NEC members had “just arrived in South Africa from Outer Mongolia”. (ST 22.10.23)  As Mr. Mkokeli says, all these members work for the state and are paid to make sure the state delivers to the citizens of South Africa. They are supposed to watch everything. The government consists of ministers who are responsible for the smooth running of their portfolio’s. These NEC members should not be asking how things are going. They should know how things are going. They should be taxing those who should be doing their jobs, as to why things are not going well, or sometimes not at all! It is the ANC’s NEC‘s responsibility to keep South Africa on the rails, not to ask department heads to give them Power Point presentations about the state of their portfolio’s. Citizens of South Africa know how things are going. They suffer from ANC malfeasance and ineptitude every day. But it looks good when these ANC charlatans show concern about what is happening “as if they have just arrived from Outer Mongolia”, as Mr.  Mkokeli so succinctly puts it.

A past master at this type of chicanery is our president, Cyril Ramaphosa. He is one of our top great pretenders. He knows how to look seriously concerned in front of a crowd. His brow furrowed, he is continually “shocked” at what he finds wherever he goes in the crippled South Africa his party has ruined. He too appears on these occasions as if he has recently arrived as a visitor from Outer Mongolia.

Who does he think he’s kidding when he goes on a junket to the Zimbabwe/South African border “to make it safer”?  With an election coming up, he has recently been photographed at this border and nearby towns declaring that illegal business activities and immigration due to our porous borders reveal a “serious threat to South Africa’s national security and economy”. He declared with a straight face that jobless South African citizens are continually demonstrating against foreigners who are “taking their jobs”. Clearly if Mr. Ramaphosa wants these disgruntled votes, he has to be seen to be “doing something”.

Yet for nearly thirty years, South Africa has lived with porous borders. The latest census proves this. All and sundry, from far and wide, have made their way to the promised land, South Africa. Many set up businesses. Many resorted to petty crime because they couldn’t find employment. Crime syndicates mushroomed, created by these foreigners who saw the gap in an un-policed country and moved in. We were fair game.  According to the 2022 census, South Africa’s population is now more than 62 million people, 10.3 million more than 11 years ago. Black people make up 81,4% of today’s South Africa. (In 1911 there were around 6 million people in South Africa, according to a census taken at the time). According to the current census, the percentage growth from 1996 until now of black people is 62.2%, brown people 40,3%, whites 1.6% and Indian/Asiatic people 62.4%. These figures released on October 10 this year are now the subject of scrutiny, and already flaws in the results of the counting are appearing. But there is no doubt that the population increase is a reality, and is not due solely to birth increases.

Independent experts maintain that there is a huge undercount, estimated to be 31%. (In developed countries the undercount usually hovers around 2%). Experts in the field spoken to by Daily Maverick (12.10.23), say the undercount is particularly high among whites and Indians. The census says whites are now 7,3% of the population, and Indians 2,7%. It is noted however that both these groups have been more reluctant to open doors to census counters, especially in gated communities. But nobody knows how many illegal immigrants have arrived in South Africa since the ANC came to power in 1994.
The biggest growth rate clearly is due to our border flows. In the past, the president has defended his party’s open border policy along ideological lines. The countries surrounding South Africa gave succour and protection to the freedom fighters during the struggle, he says, so we had to reciprocate as a country. Now that an election is around the corner however, he has changed his tune. He criticises xenophobic violence against foreigners, but “at the same time”, he declares, “we must acknowledge that South Africans are worried about illegal immigration”.

The president has now set up an organisation, the Border Management Authority, a milestone as he calls it in the government’s safety measures regarding the country’s borders. This new organisation will make sure that immigration will be controlled and that our borders will be properly monitored, he has declared. South Africa’s border is 4800 km long, with 53 border posts, 11 international airports and eight harbours. These borders were functioning and under control when this country was handed to the ANC. They simply collapsed under the ANC’s misrule.  Why now would that same ANC be able to introduce “strict control” when they allowed it to slip during their thirty-year watch?

CONSTRUCTION

Another vote catcher is within the construction industry which employs many unskilled South Africans. On 21 October it was reported that the president was on an “oversight visit” to the Potchefstroom water reservoir project in Ikageng, North West. The visit was “to address service delivery challenges”. The construction of the upgrading of the water treatment works is already 18 months behind schedule, due to delays by “lawless groups styling themselves as ‘local business forums’ wanting a share of the development.” There is also unrest because local residents want jobs in the development! This whole area is a cess pool of malfeasance and a spiralling downwards related to cause and effect.  Violence, including killing anyone in their way, is the hallmark of these “forums” which hijack infrastructure programs. The result in this instance is a lack of reliable clean water. Some residents have not had water for more than a month.

But no one is doing anything about the mafia forums causing the problem with the water! Where are the police? Where is police minister Cele? Is he also shocked at what is going on?  From building hijacking, to construction hijackings to vehicle hijackings: sixteen staff members of the Fidelity Security group were killed in over 250 attacks this year. What is the president doing about this? Or is a visit to this private security company not a vote-getter?

FARMS

Is the president visiting the burnt-out farm pastures which have recently caused huge financial losses to farmers in the North West province and other area of South Africa? Has anyone in officialdom discovered who started these fires, let alone made arrests? What about the illegal dog hunts of wildlife which occur on privately owned Mpumalanga farms? Farm owners must endure this illegal trespassing on their land because there’s nothing they can do about it. Where are the police and where is the president? Clearly there are no votes in these areas for the ANC, hence no visits by the president.

The ANC in the Eastern Cape has “promised to address” the water crisis gripping some of the 37 of the 39 councils it runs in the province – where people now drink contaminated water used by animals. Another ANC promise! They are once again addressing a crisis they created! Is the president “shocked” at this? It is important to consider that the state’s flurry of promises in its 500-page Master Plan of 2012  has had “zero impact”.  (Rapport 1.10.23). 

The ANC’s goal is to stay in power, whether or not the country falls apart. Since 2019, president Ramaphosa has toured the country during pre-election periods telling fairy stories about “addressing” various issues, about how shocked he has been seeing this and that. At one public meeting he said that the situation with collapsing municipalities was a “wake up call” for him! He has made several pre-election statements about how merit must be the yardstick for state and municipal employees, without meaning one word of what he is saying. His cadre deployment policy which he has overseen since 2012 is embedded in his DNA. His talk about merit is simply nonsense. “Deploy and destroy” says Sunday Times columnist Peter Bruce. (ST 8.10.23).

In September 2023 the ANC advised it would approach the Constitutional Court to try and prevent having to hand over the minutes of  the party’s cadre deployment committee to the opposition DA. This is a last ditch attempt to keep the deployment records secret. The ANC continues to litigate to hide its cadre deployment committee records from the time when Ramaphosa became its chairperson, and when state capture was at its height.

In the Zondo Commission’s report, Judge Zondo stated that cadre deployment was unlawful and unconstitutional. Despite this the ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula said in July this year the ANC would continue to “exercise its right” to deploy people “strategically”. On 4 September the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissed the ANC’s application to appeal directly to overturn a high court ruling which ordered the ANC to give the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) all records pertaining to the deployment committee. These records are from when Ramaphosa became the chairperson of the committee, in late December 2012/1 January 2013.

It is interesting that in court papers demanding the deployment committee’s records, it was stated in the DA’s papers that “A key mechanism of state capture was the strategic positioning of individuals in positions of power through the abuse of public sector appointment and dismissal processes. This was in contravention of the constitution and applicable legislation”.

In layman’s terms, this implies that Ramaphosa’s deployment policy was directly responsible for the collapse of South Africa under ANC  mismanagement, theft and corruption.

The president doesn’t take responsibility for anything. It’s not his fault. It’s not his party’s fault. We quote liberal Sunday Times columnist Peter Bruce who says the ANC “has sunk the railways, three national airlines, the arms manufacturer, the post office, the health services, most small towns, most large ones, the air force, the navy and the electricity supply”.   The country wasn’t supposed to fail like this, he says. “Transformation was poison from the start. The result now is chaos and a desperate effort by the private sector to save the government from the destruction it has wrought.” (ST 8.10.23)

Yet the president continues to confuse the people by saying he is “shocked” at what he sees.  He will “examine” situations and continue to promise that the ANC will turn things around. Why should this imposter be the president of a decent country like South Africa?  In truth, the private sector is keeping South Africa on the rails, despite Ramaphosa’s party’s destruction. But there is no praise for this sector. There is no praise for the country’s backbone sector, the farming industry. There is blame and empty promises and nonsense fed to the masses who, hopefully, will not be taken in this time by Ramaphosa’s humbug.

South Africa cannot afford the ANC for another five years. The ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has proven to be a man with feet of clay, despite his mellifluous speeches and the furrowed brow of worry about what he has suddenly discovered. His government is a travesty. When tenders are advertised by witchdoctors in their classified newspaper advertisements as something that can be obtained for a fee, then the writing is on the wall for our country.