YET another public official has hit the front pages of our daily press over allegations of fraud and corruption.
The shocking thing about this is that those found with their hands in the cookie jar of late are women.
They are mothers, grannies and aunts, sisters who should be setting an example.
Amid the shenanigans around the arms deal and the goings on in the trade unions where powerful men have fallen from grace it seems too, that the ‘sistas’ are doing it for themselves.
In the news lately was Sheryl Cwele, she of the leopard skin coat and high fashion clothes and, of course, a charge of smuggling cocaine to Brazil. So while drug mule Tessa Beetge languishes in a South American jail, the Constitutional Court has reduced Cwele’s sentence from 20 years to 12.
Good behaviour and a few high days and holidays that must be celebrated by our exuberant authorities by throwing open the prison doors, our Sheryl could be out in six or less.
Dina Pule’s liking for the high life of overseas travel and expensive hotels, as well as high fashion, landed her in hot water in parliament.
But instead of feeling the heat, many observers believe that she received a mere slap on the wrist and her apology was anything but.
“I want to say to this house I did the best I could to do my job and if I made a mistake, I want to apologise”.
It’s the “if” that says it all. It’s that little word which turns the apology into justification.
In her role as Communications Minister she was found guilty by parliament of spending thousands and thousands of rands on her lover and ensuring contracts and funds went to his company.
There was talk that Pule could be prosecuted in a court of law but few would take any bets that this will happen.
The latest in this litany of shame is the Independent Electoral Commission chairman, Pansy Tlakula.
According to Public Protector Thuli Madonsella, Tlakula has risked the reputation of the IEC over tender irregularities and failing to disclose her personal interest in a company which won the contract for the lease of a Pretoria office park by the IEC.
While Tlakula denies the corruption charges and other allegations, no doubt the IEC has been brought into disrepute, and this on the eve of a national election is not a good thing. If found to be true will the head of the IEC be charged in a court of law and taxpayers money recouped? Probably not.
It seems those in positions of power have the means of staying out of jail when we, the common folk, would have been locked up long ago, for transgressions more minor than these.
Hardly a day goes by when there isn’t a report of millions and billions being siphoned off into someone’s private bank account. When one thinks of what that money could buy – housing, sanitation, education, hospitals and clinics, is it not surprising that we are not angry about this? We have become a nation so punch drunk by gross dishonesty and greed that it seems we hardly notice any more.
