Publication: Business Day Issued: Date: 2007-01-19 Reporter: Amy Musgrave

Bigger Fish to Fry than Yengeni, says Researcher

 

Publication 

Business Day
Date 2007-01-19

Reporter

 Amy Musgrave

Web Link

www.businessday.co.za

 

A “beady eye” should be kept on politicians and tycoons in the country’s fight against corruption, which is made worse by the accumulation of wealth by the few, says a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies.

“If we are serious about tackling corruption in 2007, SA has bigger fish to fry *1 than a former freedom fighter and hero who was foolish enough to cast shame on his party in the pursuit of a shiny German sports utility vehicle,” Hennie van Vuuren said yesterday. He was referring to former African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Tony Yengeni, who was released on parole this week after a brief stint in prison for defrauding Parliament.

The ANC’s allies and opposition parties have increasingly slammed the wealth accumulation of ANC high-ups. Cabinet ministers and leaders in the party often made headlines last year in connection with business and tender deals.

Van Vuuren said there were at least seven areas *2 that remained particularly vulnerable to corruption and scandal. They were the arms deal, the 2010 World Cup, service delivery, “Democracy Inc”, Parliament, lack of corporate governance, and the failure to prosecute people who made money off apartheid.

The arms deal remained the “defining corruption drama” in democratic SA, and this year would probably see another trial for Zuma, with indications of others being implicated, he said.

“Anticorruption agencies need to be given capacity, and to assert themselves politically, in order to cast their net wider if we are ever to achieve closure on a saga that has bruised almost all our democratic institutions.”

Van Vuuren said that after the arms industry, construction was one of the world’s most corrupt sectors, and there was no doubt that contractors were “licking their lips” at the possibilities of the 2010 World Cup.

SA would have to ensure that this project was a beacon of integrity and that extra checks and balances were in place to avoid inflated bills and jobs for pals, he said.

On service delivery, the lure of lucrative tenders was great, and the economic and political elite would continue to steal from the poor to further fuel the consumer boom.

Van Vuuren said the institution of Parliament had a lot of ground to regain if it was to fulfil its function of top oversight institution in the country. “The recent announcement of a R350m banqueting hall for Parliament will do little to assist that cause.”

He said until the private funding of political parties was regulated, more scandals would emerge.

With acknowledgements to Amy Musgrave and Business Day.


*1       We been a fryin' and a fryin' and both fish of all sizes and elephants of larger size have been feeling the heat - even Mini Bat Boy.

It the Three Stooges, Shauket Fakie CA(SA), Selby Baqwa SC and Bulelani Ngcuka, hadn't doused our braais in 2001, our sushi would have been well and truly cajun.


*2      The good Mr van Vuuren has omitted The Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactor - watch that space - and The Gauteng Train.