Scared of Covid-19? Beware the ANC-20 virus…

The Covid-19 pandemic will sicken 9,000 out of every million South Africans. The ANC-20 corruption pandemic is far worse. It will make every one of us sick to our stomachs.

At least half of the R10.4 billion that government set aside for emergency Covid-19 relief is under criminal investigation. When the process is completed, it is conceivable that more than two out of three rand set aside to care for the vulnerable, the sick and the dying, will be shown to have been misused – either stolen in non-delivered contracts or skimmed through inflated prices.

I urge everyone to access the detailed tender awards released by the Treasury online at ocpo.treasury.gov.za/COVID19. Read and weep. Read and gnash your teeth. But please read. The information varies substantially in its scope and usefulness.

For example, in the Eastern Cape, there are no details of what was bought, in what numbers, and using what units of measure for the costs arrived at, making the information useless. But to whet your appetite – and, of course, without any nasty imputations of greed or corruption – let’s take a random sampling.

In the Free State, plastic surgical gloves were procured at between R234 and R356 a pair. This kind of markup, of an item costing cents per unit wholesale, was pretty much par for the course in other provinces. The biggest item of expenditure in the KwaZulu-Natal premier’s office was R475,000 paid to Euphoric Technologies for “decanting, rebottling and delivery” of 25 000ml of sanitiser at R19/ml. Sounds a good deal until it dawns that KZN paid almost half a million rand to rebottle 25l of ethanol-laced soap water.

Interestingly, in KZN more than 57% of the province’s R2 billion in emergency funds was spent on infrastructural projects, which is not what it was intended for. Again, while there is no imputation of wrongdoing, let’s just consider the scale of that spend.

It cost R81 million “to refurbish a ward” at Clairwood Hospital, as well as another R232 million on “other ward alterations and additions” at that hospital. At the Richmond Chest Hospital, the refurbishment of three wards into isolation units cost R80 million. They then converted another three, at a cost of a further R61 million.

One can carry on like this, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. But what is obvious is that contrary to claims that black empowerment regulations are necessary as a counterweight to white monopoly capital, that is not what is happening. Few of the tender beneficiaries are recognisable commercial entities, complete with premises, staff and equipment.

Many, if not most, appear simply to be intermediaries. Covid-19 procurement has been a feeding frenzy and no track record is required. Hence one has an office furniture company providing disinfectants and what seems to be a sports shop supplying thermometers.

That National Treasury’s controls over the emergency fund disbursements are poor. There is no uniformity in what information is provided and how it is presented, which makes accountability difficult.

What is important about this release of Covid-19 relief information – aside from President Cyril Ramaphosa expressing shock and promising that the ANC will do better in future – is that it’s a rare chance to penetrate the murkiness that normally surrounds the hundreds of billions of rands flowing through the state’s procurement processes. Covid-19 will kill less than 2% of the people it infects. ANC-20 may kill an entire nation.

William Saunderson-Meyer.

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