ANC-Hitachi investment turnaround: playing the country for fools
The capitulation by the ANC to properly disinvest from its stake in Hitachi is an indictment of a political party that has lost all credibility - this is the second time in three years that we have been promised that the ANC would disinvest, and the second time they have failed to do so.
The Hitachi link to Eskom has a sordid history of ANC denials and empty promises to appease the public:
On 21 February 2008, ANC Treasurer Mathews Phosa stated that the Hitachi deal will be exited from because "governance is an issue and there is public focus on this".
There was no confusion regarding this issue two years ago as it was a clear case of conflict of interest - yet nothing happened. (See article - Business Report)
Then the ANC performed an about turn on its opinion. As recently as January 20th, ANC Secretary General Gwede Manthashe was saying: "There is nothing wrong with investing in public companies and the Chancellor House has done nothing wrong," and that "Hitachi won the contract because it is a global company (with the skills) ... not because it has a minority shareholder which is called the ANC." (Source)
Then Phosa contradicted his original position:
On 25 February 2010, Sake24 reported that Phosa stated questions on Chancellor House were "spiteful" and "unfair" and reportedly stated "To hell with the media!"
(Source)
Following that, three days ago, on 11 April 2010, a seemingly repentant Mathews Phosa stated that "We [the ANC] have advised Chancellor House of our desire to exit from Hitachi as quickly as possible, and they are in the process of doing so." (Source)
Then the ANC again changed its mind. Yesterday, Mantashe announced that the ANC does not influence the decisions of Chancellor House, and that there will be no disinvestment.
The ANC seems to be trying to play good-cop/bad-cop with the public, with Phosa and Mantashe in the leading roles. This makes a mockery of democracy and a government built on transparency and accountability.
The DA has called on the President Zuma to disinvest from Hitachi as a matter of urgency - unsurprisingly, the President has again shown a complete lack of leadership on the issue. Now the country has had to endure numerous about-turns by the ANC on the matter.
All the while, the ANC continues to enrich themselves at the public's expense.
This is becoming the ANC's modus operandi - their key defining trait as a political party. What, after all, is the difference between Malema's tenderpreneurship - which ultimately sees public funds transferred into the bank accounts of the ANC and their cadres, at the expense of service delivery - and the Hitachi deal - which, again, sees public funds transferred into the bank accounts of the ANC, with the amount of funding transferred inversely related to the quality of the service provided by a state utility.
They are one and the same - they amount to looting the public purse for political agendas and the enrichment of cronies, at the expense of South Africans.
This is the real ANC agenda for South Africa.
The DA will submit a private members bill to parliament to criminalise political connections to government tenders. The bill will aim to regulate the awarding of government tenders in order to ensure that no business entity in which a political party has an interest, can tender with government or a parastatal.
The need for such legislation is self-evident, although the obvious dangers of conflating party and state have not stopped the ANC from its blatant refusal to follow codes of good governance in divesting from companies with whom general government does business.
It is precisely because of this attitude that the legislation of this sort is necessary.
Statement issued by Sejamothopo Motau MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of energy, April 14 2010
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