39672 crooks in the public service
30 March 2021
It is difficult to believe, but 39672 officials, earning a salary paid by the taxpayer, applied for the Covid-19 relief SRD grant of R350.00. This grant was intended to relieve the extreme poverty of the unemployed and those not in receipt of any other social assistance.
The cynical disregard by these public officials of the most basic rules of honesty and integrity makes them unfit to continue being employed by us. These people steal from the public and from the poor and they deserve to be fired and jailed for fraud.
Questioning the minister of Social Development in Parliament, DA MP Mimmy Gondwe managed to bring to light, not only the applications but also the fact that 241 officials were actually paid the R350.00 for the month of May 2020. The public money thus obtained fraudulently, for that month alone, totalled R84 350.00. If the other applicants had received the grant, that would have cost us R13 885 200.00 for just one month.
No disciplinary or legal action has been taken. The matter is “being investigated.” There is no end to the looting, the theft and the fraud. One of the reasons is that suspensions (on full pay) precede hearings, sometimes taking years to finalise. Criminal proceedings seem to take forever. Another reason is that officials have the example of a former president who has yet to appear in court on alleged crimes committed decades ago, before he became president, let alone his subsequent conduct that cost our country so dearly both in money and in the hollowing out and perversion of much of the state.
There are numerous examples; virtually every day a new scandal is revealed, but little seems to happen. Few indeed have seen or are likely to wear the orange overalls meant for people like them. One example that still rankles after thirteen years is the Parliamentary Travelgate crooks. MPs between them stole millions of Rand from the poor people of South Africa.
Some of them paid fines but none of them, to my knowledge, lost their seats in Parliament. Indeed, several of them received promotions and a few became ministers, even though they were criminals. Is anyone surprised that public officials in their thousands, and indeed, it seems tens of thousands, become fraudsters and criminals too?
Transparency International publishes annually the Corruption Perception Index and South Africa now ranks 69th on the list of the most corrupt, far below the least corrupt countries like Denmark and New Zealand but thankfully (still) far above countries like Yemen, Syria, Somalia and South Sudan, classified as the most corrupt countries in the world.
The grim reality is that we are slipping on this index and every indication is that we will continue doing so unless those who govern us at every level decide thus far and no further. Promises are not enough. President Ramaphosa is great at making promises but sadly, little or nothing ever comes of them.
How can anyone believe them when the most senior official in the governing Party, Ace Magashule, (once described by Ramaphosa as “my boss”), accused of very serious crimes, continues in office. He thumbs his nose and undermines the president at every opportunity. And he gets away with it.
Many public officials, senior and junior, are cadre deployees, appointed because of their ANC membership and not necessarily because of their competence. No wonder some feel that they too should steal. The crooks think, “After all I’ve done, I deserve a little (or a lot) more.”
Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and former ambassador to Thailand. His website is: douglasgibsonsouthafrica.com
This article first appeared in The Star newspaper.
