Help, the cadres have stolen too much

One of the big pre-election debates doing the rounds is that of cadre deployment.

No one cares if a political party deploys its cadres into positions of power, as long as those deployed are honest, knowledgeable, hardworking, and competent. Within the government, this is not the case.

It is the deployment of criminally-minded incompetent cadres that hold executive posts that are being questioned. It is these people who have cost our economy, development and progress dearly.

But someone must be attacked and blamed for our country’s financial woes and failing trajectory.

Ironically, the government has chosen to tax-attack and blame private businesses, and it wants to dictate how they can or cannot do business or who they can or cannot appoint.

Yet, when they need financial assistance to replace what they have stolen, they turn to the private sector
with honey-dripping words.

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Transnet, a once-profitable strategic state-owned company that operates national ports, terminals, rail networks, pipelines and property in South Africa, is in a dire financial mess.

In short, it is another failed government SOE. This is despite Transnet’s website telling us that it plays a
a crucial part in our freight logistics chain and that it “delivers goods to each South African”. It is near collapse.

The ever-growing number of heavy goods vehicles that daily destroy our roads is proof that Transnet does not have much public support or trust either.

Government, either knowingly or unknowingly, allowed Transnet to be degraded. Stations have been plundered and, in some places, even dismantled.

Many kilometres of rail tracks have been stolen, pipelines damaged and our ports and harbours are a disgrace.

The ever-growing number of heavy goods vehicles that daily destroy our roads is proof that Transnet does not have much public support or trust either.

The government, either knowingly or unknowingly, allowed Transnet to be degraded. Stations have been plundered and, in some places, even dismantled.

Many kilometres of rail tracks have been stolen, pipelines damaged and our ports and harbours are a disgrace.

However, the government now needs help to resuscitate another dying state-owned company.

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In a country where more than 28 million people live off grants, paid by less than 7 million taxpayers, where does the government think the private sector they have worked so hard to destroy and
marginalise will find the money to help fix Transnet?

It is a frightening thought to consider that only 3 million South Africans carry 70% of our country’s tax burden.

It is, after all, the government that decided to develop and implement policies and practices to empty the coffers of the SOEs, kill off the private sector and increase our tax base by implementing failed cadre deployments and destructive economic policies.

Having stolen the state’s coffers empty, they now turn to those whom they want to punish, dictate to and destroy.

Overtaxed and under-serviced, the private sector is already struggling to keep its head above
water.

Or was the wanton destruction of Transnet all part of a larger plan to take control over all services and production and then sell it off cheaply to some entitled cadres or a foreign government that doesn’t have
our best interests at heart?

It is frightening to consider that in less than a decade, both the strategically important Eskom and Transnet have cost the country in excess of R2 trillion.

What is currently happening in South Africa has nothing to do with growing the economy and developing the country.

It has everything to do with growing the wealth of the leaders while developing their bank accounts at the expense of the people of South Africa.

A growing feeling is that the politics of the stomach will eventually triumph over the politics of corruption. People are beginning to understand that to grow the economy, we need to grow our education and redirect the destructive economic policies the government has forced on us.

South Africans aren’t as stupid as the government thinks they are. They understand that if the economy doesn’t grow, unemployment rises and poverty increases.

They also know that the government has created a welfare state with millions of grants that cannot be sustained.

Handing out grants has made people dependent on the government. But it is also a powerful
election tool: “If we lose the election, your grants will disappear and you will need to actually go
to work.

Those who now live off grants have no choice, but to vote for a failed government to keep their welfare benefits, regardless.

But plundering the national treasure has consequences.

One of those is a call on the already punch-drunk, overtaxed and despondent private sector again to help replace what our leaders have stolen.

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