Busi Mavuzo is a board member of ESKOM. She is also the CEO of Business Leadership South Africa. SCOPA is the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts. In appearing before SCOPA recently, dealing with the ESKOM mess, she was asked to leave when she told the truth.
Her “offence” was to decline, in her capacity as a board member of ESKOM, to accept the smear that the board and the CEO, Andre de Ruyter, both appointed by the government, should accept the blame for the mess that ESKOM has become. Both she and all board members, plus de Ruyter must accept scrutiny and accountability, but what about the ANC?
She stated clearly that it is the direct fault of ANC government inaction over many years. Everyone in South Africa, must know this. After all, President Zuma appointed Ramaphosa and Gordhan to fix ESKOM a decade ago, long before the current ESKOM board and long before the exceptionally brave de Ruyter agreed to take on an almost impossible task.
Presumably, the modern-day SCOPA, not the one I served on for some years, prefers witnesses to tell lies or at least to “gild the lily” to avoid offending the government and more specifically, to avoid embarrassing the ANC. That the chairperson of SCOPA, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, a member of the IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party) saw fit to throw her out for “grandstanding,” seems to observers to be a repudiation of the role he has sworn to fulfil without fear or favour.
If SCOPA is sliding down the slippery slope of mediocrity and integrity, like Parliament’s Ethics Committee did recently on the Mkhize matter, then we perhaps have an answer to the question posed in a PhD thesis by Koliswa M Matebese-Notshulwana. “Why is there a growing problem of financial misconduct and abuse of public funds in the public sector despite the existence of SCOPA as a parliamentary oversight mechanism?”
The thesis concludes that “…notwithstanding the good intentions underlying the oversight role of SCOPA, democratic South Africa’s financial management continues to be afflicted by corruption, fraud and theft. Failure to take action against cases of fraud and corruption brings into question the effectiveness and efficiency of the oversight role of parliament.” There can surely be no stronger indictment of SCOPA and parliament failing to carry out their respective roles effectively.
Parliament is not what it was in the early days of our democracy. And there is no reason that this should be and remain so. Those of us who care about Parliament find it painful to witness the decline of the mechanisms set up to protect our democracy. It is of course the inevitable consequence of a political party having been in power far too long for the good of the country (or of itself, for that matter). But surely, we do not have to wait until 2024 when the ANC will possibly lose its majority and be replaced by a new government – in all probability a multi-party government. That will be like a blast of fresh air and renewal through all our institutions and not least parliament itself.
That process could begin now. Parliament should appoint an all-party committee to consider whether all the institutions of parliament, including SCOPA and the Ethics committee, set up to facilitate its oversight function are working satisfactorily and what regulatory or legislative amendments are necessary or desirable to strengthen that oversight function.
South Africa may yet have cause to thank Busi Mavuso for her straightforward and truthful evidence before SCOPA.
Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and a former ambassador to Thailand.
This article first appeared in The Star newspaper.
