Dear Sir,
Do the publicly-declared links President Jacob Zuma has with Viv Reddy, the wealthy KZN businessman, and the alleged links he has with the super-wealthy Gupta family represent a potentially illegal /corrupt relationship between political (policy) decision-making power and extreme wealth. If it is found that the Public Works Department paid only for security upgrades at Zuma’s private estate at Nkandla, where did the rest of money come from ? Is our country’s national heritage being auctioned off to moneyed and powerful foreign /business political interests ? Are the extensive additions to Nkandla Estate the fruit of Zuma’s corrupt relationships ? When he says that ‘our family’ paid for the improvements to Nkandla, is he implying that the Public Works Department didn’t pay, are we to take it that ‘his family’ obtained the money from aforementioned Zuma family benefactors (because the ‘family’, we strongly suspect, doesn’t have their own capital resources this scale of expenditure represents) ? Of course, if President Zuma were to actually tell us that the Guptas and the Reddys of this world paid for the improvements, his political life could well be at an end ! As things stand, Viv Reddy openly confirmed recently that he played an active part in enabling enhancements to Nkandla.
In the earliest days of our fledgling democracy in the early-mid 1990s, in spite of a general global trend to drop trade barriers, our leaders (ANC politicians) were advised by the international community that we had a recognized case (as an emerging democracy with an economy recovering from sanctions) to put in place trade barriers to protect our still-fledgling (-and erstwhile closed) economy. Certain categories, i.e. textiles and clothing, and certain of our light- industry sectors were eminently eligible for protection. History shows that our politicians chose to ignore this advice. They welcomed, with open arms, senior Chinese figures who visited our country in the run up to and immediately after 1994, and our senior political figures were, in turn, receiving very warm state welcomes by the top Chinese elite. Since 1994, our clothing industry has shed some 17 000 jobs. Another example, being but one of many in the SME (small to medium- sized enterprise) category, is that of an East Rand business making ovens for commercial bakeries. The company employed some 135 staff. An average sized bakery oven was being sold for R35 000 - these ovens would last for at least ten years. The Chinese brought in their bakery ovens, selling them for R6 000. These ovens were made with cheaper materials and not-the-most-competent manufacturing process, lasting on average only sixteen months. In spite of this, it has had a devastating effect on the aforementioned East Rand business, which now employs only 12 people, servicing only small fraction of its original market. Just two examples of many !
Recently a financial pundit on one of Sky TV’s business programs said that that the ongoing and increasing use of the world-wide, all-embracing internet is beginning to lead to a fundamental change to investment patterns, which would, in turn, also reduce the financial leverage available to national government to indulge in endemic, large-scale corruption - this would, in turn, take away their ability to so freely travel on the ‘gravy train’. If that indeed be the case, roll on that day - we shall all shout as one “Hallelujah” !
Sandy Johnston
Rivonia,
Johannesburg
No comments:
Post a Comment