Does South Africa need a new Elon Musk?

Watching the DA push for new Chapter 9 institutions and the Department of Justice pushing back is exhausting. You have to ask yourself whether this is really something we even need to be discussing. Hearing the Department of Justice tell us that we don’t have money for any Commission on Cybercrime or Anti-Corruption is as obvious as we need money to fund the existing seven.

But Saps has a cybercrime division. I dare say it’s even a good one! We also have a cyber-security hub run by the Department of Communications. Additionally, they run a child online protection service. The State Security Agency maintains a Computer Security Incident Response Team. Then we have the Financial Intelligence Centre, the Film and Publications Board, Internet Service Providers Association, South African Bank Risk Information Centre and surprise, surprise, Sars has a scams and phishing team as well. Now look at that list and try telling me that we need one more. If anything, we need a PhD just to determine where to start when an issue arises.

Want to get started on entities that tackle corruption? Just look at all the entities that make up the Anti-Corruption Task Team and then come to the realisation that we have a task team. Now wait. Yes. You’re starting to understand. Exactly! What’s the point of an anti-corruption Chapter 9 institution when the Hawks, SIU, NPA, SSA, FIC, AFU and Saps all form part of the existing task team?

You have to convince us that the new institution is going to be better… that’s something you can’t guarantee especially by looking at certain other chapter 9 institutions. Whatever you do, the desire to have these institutions is a clear position on a certain belief – the system we have isn’t working to fight corruption nor is it working to fight cybercrime.

If that really is the case, why are we not going in and investigating what services we’re actually paying for? Where is our department of government efficiency and who will be our Elon Musk…perhaps with fewer oddities and better consideration.

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If there’s no money for more Chapter 9 institutions, then surely it would be prudent to have a follow up question: what are we getting for the money we already spend on Chapter 9 institutions? What are we getting for the money spent on other governmental institutions and programmes? Better yet, how is it that we have so many public institutions seemingly doing the same thing?

It’s odd that they haven’t really done anything like it because I always thought the DA really went in for this kind of bureaucracy thing. But before suggesting any form of new institution, open up a spread sheet, list every single one on the books and write down what they do. Then see who is doing the same thing and sort that out.

Surely that would be a better starting point than pushing to start a Chapter 9 institution to do the things existing departments are charged with doing?

You don’t need the radical efficiency of Musk to tell you that. You just need to demand to get what you pay for.

One must understand the allure of calling for Chapter 9 institutions. That’s because some of them actually work. Heck, some of them even do good work. When last have you heard of what the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities does? I’d love to tell you but their latest report on their website is from  July 2023. When you hover over the “what we do” part, you get the options of “tenders”, “vacancies” and “database” registration… which doesn’t exactly offer much. This shows that simply by virtue of being a Chapter 9 institution, you are not guaranteed to perform.

It’s silly to suggest we need more of what we already have when what we already have isn’t doing the job. Let’s take what we have and make it workable.

We produced an Elon 1.0 for export, surely we can find a better version within our ranks that’s both likeable and will actually get efficiencies going. That’s way more productive than lining up Chapter 9s.

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