Blowing in the wind — Thabo Mbeki’s warnings on ANC ‘renewal’ will be ignored

The corruption started well before Zuma - it enabled him to get into office and lest we forget, it was Vavi and Malema, as heads of Cosatu and the Youth League respectively, who rammed Zuma through, and then walked away without so much as an apology when the Zuptas put corruption on steroids. It's also not abated under Cyril 'stuff it in the couch' Ramaphosa. Moreover, Mbeki shows his denialist roots again by refusing to acknowledge this, or the fact that 'our people' have been ritually abused by the ANC State, to the point exhaustion. They're not your people, Mbeki, South Africa is not your country - it's ours, and you've pulverised it through corruption, cadre deployment and absolute ineptitude, where party fealty is prized over any kind of actual ability. If you're so determined that 'capital' shouldn't run the country, try actually running it properly as government. Except you can't - or more pertinently, the ANC won't run it properly as long as there are tenders to be dished out.

First, let's remember Mbeki's time in government and his response to criticism; he denied AIDS existed, ignored warnings about Eskom, defended the arms deal, and did not take kindly to criticism. A leopard does not change its spots, cannot make a silk purse from a sow's ear etc. The ANC has utterly failed to govern or grow this country, and perhaps 'resigning' from the ANC would have more impact.

There are simple solutions which if managed correctly can provide help from Capital and Private concerns to those less advantaged. What if Netcare, Life Hospitals, Mediclinic etc, instead of paying corporate tax ran the government hospitals on behalf of the Dept of Health for free, this would remove the "middleman" with sticky fingers and remove the political interference of these institutions.

The article deservedly draws attention, as the Mbeki presidency arguably brought the most substantial economic post-apartheid success. This was rooted in Mbeki’s strong Finance team led by Trevor Manual and National Treasury, and a constructive public-private relationship. But there stops this article’s economic wisdom, especially in the crude assertion that “privatisation is a double-edged sword, which can leave the rich with better services and the poor with almost nothing”. Of course, this might well hold some validity, but it simply misses the underlying logic of a constructive relationship between the public and private sectors. Public-private partnership over the past 15 years at least has been a distortion through cosy, secretive, crooked patronage within an elite. But it missed the essence of such partnerships in more successfully, ethically countries, much of which did apply in the first 15 post-apartheid years or so. Some PPPs then struggled to mature, but in several cases the public sector got it right, contracting private partners to perform functions earlier provided by the public sector. Through such arrangements there have been around 40 PPPs in South Africa since the 1990s, delivered with mixed results. Where there have been failures or misdemeanors, they were not intrinsically due to private sector involvement. Instead, public sector governance has all but collapsed in many parts of government since the Zuma years, made possible by a collapse of ethics in government, rather than due to private sector involvement. This has been facilitated greatly by under skilled staff in many public sector institutions, facilitated by cadre employment which intrinsically has little regard for professional management. This is where change must come, whether the ANC rules or not, or whether the private sector gets contracted or not. Failure to professionalize the system of public sector governance, is at the root of the malfunctioning of government in South Africa – NOT PPPs.

The poor has lost hope and the only faction of this society extending a hand of any form of help and support is the private sector. The ANC does nothing for the poor. The ANC stole their dreams and trampled their hope and has no right to their support. Privatisation will not kill democracy. If people have human rights there will be democracy. If people have hospitals and schools and houses and transport there will be democracy. If the taxes paid by the rich and not so rich are not stolen and go to developing the country and to create better lives for all South Africa will certainly be a democracy at last. The only reason for resisting a status quo where capitalism supports a growing economy in a democratic society is the hunger for power, not to govern or distribute wealth, but for those in power to take from the poor in order to enrich themselves through the work and suffering of others - the only thing the ANC, under each and every president, has mastered. Who is Mbeki anyway to tell anybody what to do? Renew the ANC? To become what?