I
am frequently asked why I do not consider going into politics. My stock response
is that I have seen far too many of my friends ruined by politics. Perfectly
nice people prior to 1994 have become arrogant, pompous, self-serving and
narcissistic. Politicians across the spectrum, except for a few, are a horrible
lot. One such friend, Yolanda Botha, received a damning editorial in the Argus
(30 November 2011) for lying under oath that she had vested interests in a
business company that received R50 million contract from the Northern Cape
Department of Social Development and in return her house was refurbished at a
cost of R1.2m. Worse, she retains her position as chair of Parliament’s Social
Development - wait for it - oversight panel, which adds R180 000 to her
already exorbitant salary of R800 000.
Botha
was a nice woman and one wonders whether there are anymore honourable ANC
politicians left. The height of cynicism is the Speaker’s reprimand which yet
again reinforces the culture of impunity that has left political corpses strewn
all over the place - likeable men and women like Winnie Mandela, Jackie Selebi,
Bheki Cele, Mac Maharaj, Phumzile Mlambo-Nguka, Judge Hlophe, Baleka Mbete,
Allan Boesak, and Tony Yengeni, to name a few. More generally, the ANC has
destroyed swathes of people who should have been in senior positions today to
give direction and guidance to aspirant young people.
Instead young,
inexperienced, untrained and incompetent people are governing us and their role
models are those at the highest levels of government, even in the judiciary,
have been crooks.
This stranglehold of impunity in the
hallowed halls of the legislature must be smashed. Its seeds are deep and were
sown with the start of the Arms Deal and entrenched by the Travel Scandal. The
most sacred space where the country’s laws are made has been defiled and “moral
regeneration” continues to elude a society desperately in need of a moral
fabric that will inspire SA’s youth. Regrettably, when the morally degenerate
occupies the levers of power, then we have no hope of addressing the challenges
of health-care, housing, unemployment and poverty that the country. No wonder
SA has declined on Transparency International’s corruption index from 54 in
2010 to 64 in 2011 – worse than Namibia, Rwanda, Mauritius, Cape Verde and
Botswana.
Can
we blame some of the cops for being corrupt? Can we blame Home Affairs
officials for taking bribes? Can we blame some magistrates and prosecutors for
taking chances?
Political
office and the entitlement that goes with it have destroyed wonderful people,
many of whom were my friends; we belonged to the same political organisations;
we worked at the same university; we frequented the same parties, and so on.
Today many who now serve in government, universities, and on corporations view
themselves as entitled and despise columnists especially when they become the
objects of our critical pens. Those who enter politics as a first step towards
wealth and those who have wound up their vested interests with political office
and steal from the very poor they profess to serve, harbour resentments towards
opinion-makers, so venomous, that one knows they are guilty. The problem is –
the fallen still remains mighty. We, the citizens, should dislodge them.
A
pensioner friend of mine is starting the first act of defiance. She told me
that she would refuse to pay in any tax demands over and above what she has already
contributed this year. She can no
longer take the flagrant abuse of our taxes for personal enrichment and
conspicuous consumption. I concur and will join her. Any takers?
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