Election lists are littered with fraudsters, thieves and a murderer
March 23, 2009
By Donwald Pressly
It leaves one feeling a little uncomfortable that the ANC has sent swarms of luxury German sedans on the road - most of them retailing at more than R300 000 each - as advertising and canvassing vehicles for the election, with huge pictures of the party's leader, comrade Jacob Zuma, emblazoned everywhere.
This is an unsettling period. There is something bizarre about Cope's Allan Boesak giving a lecture on human rights and the state preventing the Dalai Lama from visiting. What is one to make of the fact that the Harksen scandal's Erik Marais is high up on the DA list, while Travelgate suspects litter ANC election lists?
Stories of alleged dodgy dealings by parliamentary officials abound. Even the ID has a murderer on its list. The IFP, which likes to present itself as clean, has a convicted fraudster on its list.
Then there is the question of where the ANC is receiving its funding. Of course, party funding is shrouded in mystery, outside of the millions provided by the state for administrative expenses. So one cannot be sure how many millions of rands the ruling party is getting from the despots of Libya and Equatorial Guinea. No doubt some of the other political parties are getting funny money as well.
On April 22 the voter has a choice of a balance of thieves, hopefully with a few good people thrown in. The ANC's own surveys indicate that it will not get a two-thirds majority, with which it could change the constitution.
Amid the rank failure of many state entities - SAA, the Land Bank, the SABC and Denel spring to mind - there are steps in ANC circles to create a co-ordinating mechanism to govern all state enterprises.
After the poll, a superminister of parastatals could take charge. While one can live in hope that it is someone sensible like Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, the chances are good that it will be some Marxist-Leninist who will try to mirror the wonders of the now defunct communist eastern Europe.
The ANC survey shows it will lose the Western Cape to a coalition of opposition parties - good news for democracy. It will mean that at least in one province, holding an ANC party card won't be a ticket to top jobs and contracts.
In Cape Town, the only city under opposition rule, merit rather than party loyalty is beginning to take root. Hopefully a bridgehead of good governance will be forged at provincial level.
One is also optimistic that the ANC majority at national level - and in the other eight provinces - will be brought down enough to stop a collectivist mentality from prevailing.
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