South Africa: Take Your Q-Fat cats scoff on as voters ignore media tales of greed [opinon]

Being a columnist in South Africa is like being a sweetie thief in kindergarten. There is such a smorgasbord of venality, stupidity and greed on display week after week to choose from

So we do our thing and have our say and live in hope that one day enough of our fellow citizens will wake up to what we see. Sometimes this hope is justified. Pressure from the media forced Julius Malema to explain his riches to the nation and ANC bigwigs were made to wriggle uncomfortably about the scandalous deals that will let its fundraising arm Chancellor House profit from electricity price hikes while the rest of us suffer because of them.

But, ultimately we know that all we can do is tell our stories. It is up to voters to become so aggrieved by what they see that they have no choice but to stand up for themselves and force through higher levels of accountability.

In her weekly newsletter, DA leader Helen Zille, a former journalist, last week told a story about Kannaland, a district municipality in the Karoo that I have never heard of, where a by-election was recently held. To quote her: "The winning candidate was Jeffrey Donson, of the Independent Civics Organisation of South Africa. A former school teacher, Donson... rose through the ranks to become mayor of Kannaland.

"In 2008 he lost his council seat when he was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison for the statutory rape of a 15 year-old girl. This was later reduced to a suspended sentence on appeal."

A mere three weeks later, Donson was re-elected and again lost his seat at the end of last year when he was found guilty of malpractice and corruption during his tenure as mayor. You guessed it, he successfully fought the by-election to fill the vacancy.

He proves what so many of us worry about: that it doesn't matter what you do, it is still possible to be re-elected.

I hold no brief for Zille or the DA and Kannaland may be an extreme example of politics gone mad, but the point that she makes is a valid one. Until there are consequences for wrongdoing it will continue unabated.

But until that day comes, we will continue to feast on the abundance of material that is given to us on a platter.

The ructions within the ruling alliance, which, it seems, spends more time fighting within its own ranks than anything else, are always good for a few hundred words.

The latest brouhaha came about because the ANC accused Cosatu of being divisive and of creating instability.

Cosatu "respectfully" rejected the criticism by its senior partner and stood by its accusation that factions within the ANC were only in it for their own selfish ends.

I don't often agree with Cosatu, but this time the union federation is bang on the money about "materialists and tenderpreneurs within the ANC leadership".

I love these fights because they give me hope that even within a de facto one-party state such as ours, democracy can survive if enough people have the courage to take on the big guys.

One of these big guys is, you guessed it, the ANC Youth League president and the country's most famous tenderpreneur. Malema is by no means alone in adding to my disquiet, although when he drinks pink Moët on a stage while talking about how rooted he is in other people's poverty, the word hubris springs to mind.

"I'm still living in poverty today, because as long as a neighbour of mine is struggling, I too am struggling."

Perhaps, but I can't help feeling that the watch, the car, the houses and the expensive hooch all help ease the pain.

- March 8, 2010 by Quentin Wray

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Source: www.busrep.co.za/index.php (accessed 08.03.10)