The radical economic transformation of the Jacob Zuma years has come full circle. The chickens have come home to roost. Welcome to the Banana Republic of SA! So now state-owned arms manufacturer Denel cannot meet the full wage bill for its 4,629 employees, while the SABC is begging for cash to pay the salaries of its 3,414 staff after July. The SABC’s creditors, meanwhile, can forget about being paid until the broadcaster can persuade the finance minister to dish out more money. It has said it wants R3bn "urgently", plus another R3.8bn later.
SAA has long been in the queue, waiting for yet another cash bailout. This time it needs more than R13bn to meet the payroll bill for almost 11,000 employees. PetroSA is also waiting for a handout of more than R4bn so it can pay the salaries of 1,340 staff. Eskom’s 46,795 employees, on the other hand, have been assured of at least R230bn of undeserved cash from the taxpayer over the next 10 years.
All these "businesses" are also totally bankrupt. They have been brought to their knees, milked dry for more than a decade by the corruption of their executives in a project sanctioned by the political bosses that the public voted into office. Of course, we were all there. Watching it fall. Many of us watched in stunned silence. Even though we knew radical economic transformation was code for large-scale theft of public resources, we stood by and did nothing.
Though we knew it was code for large-scale theft of public resources, we stood by and did nothing
Prominent business people who paid the lion’s share of the taxes that were channelled into corrupt deals said nothing. Even previously heroic fighters for human rights just shook their heads and focused on the scraps of business that still came their way. For a long time nobody wanted to upset those with power, lest their businesses be targeted.
The good and the decent in the corporate world retreated, seeking comfort in their boardrooms, leaving the field open for the fools in the public domain to multiply.
The conspiracy of silence triumphed.
Long day’s journey into night
Now it has all come back to haunt these same business people. While the employees of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), themselves far from being innocent bystanders, cannot be sure they will get their full salaries, a sovereign credit downgrade to junk status is the only certainty.
Our long night has only just begun. There is no light on the horizon. The "new dawn" has been deferred. Again. There will be no meaningful restructuring of the SOEs. There will be no turnaround at the municipalities that have long been unable to fulfil their obligations to the residents who have been paying for services they did not receive.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has not yet decided if he wants to be president and leader of the whole country, or just of the ANC and its allies. He has not made up his mind whether he, or party secretary-general Ace Magashule, is in charge. Magashule has not wasted a moment. He is calling the shots, and is holding the economy to ransom.
Forget about the lofty promises Ramaphosa has been making for the past 18 months. The damp squib that was the state of the nation address shows he is merely a politician. Ten years from now Eskom will still be suffocating the economy. Ramaphosa will have come and gone — having failed dismally to deliver the rebirth he has loudly promised.
That’s because he still thinks he can be a nice guy. But if you are wrestling pigs, everything gets dirty. Those pigs under the leadership of Magashule also have sharp teeth. They are fighting for survival. They will not allow the new dawn to break.
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