For non South Africans and non Afrikaans speakers, the "v" in Afrikaans words is pronounced like an "f", so the word in the title would be pronounced something like "ferfrotting", but with a more delicate accent than English tongues can usually muster. And if it was a word, but it's not. "Vrot" means rotten, so for the sake of this discussion let's agree that "vervrotting" means rotting.
That's how our democracy feels today. This afternoon, South Africa sits on the edge of our collective seat and we watch as Parliament votes on a Motion of No Confidence - the eighth to date - in the President of the country and the President of the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's governing party. Or as they like to say it, the ruling party. This is an important distinction in our young democracy because it is clear the ANC has left behind the people it helped to liberate through the struggle against apartheid in favour of staying in power at all costs, regardless of how poor the poor still are and how unequal South African society has become.
What's the vrot?
It's a bit like watching Game of Thrones meets House of Cards in real life. Where to start? Probably best with the horrifyingly fascinating exercise in "state capture", effected by the Gupta family in concert with President Zuma, his family and close circle. The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism has done extraordinary work in investigating this rot, and communicates it online and through an ongoing stream of media revelations as they work through the terabytes of data in the #GuptaLeaks, which you can read about, possibly for years to come, here.
The systemic vrot is fuelled by the political largesse which drives redistribution of wealth at the large scale level and in the informal township economies, as described so well by Anton Harber in his insightful book Diepsloot, reviewed here about one of South Africa's most desperate and yet vibrant townships (not so far from where we live in blissful suburbia, by the way). The centrist/statist ideology which the "ruling" party applies is incompatible with sustainable private sector led wealth creation. Ideally, in this way of thinking, all money magically goes into some central pot and gets redistributed fairly by a few wise redistributors who of course would never skim off the top or use the power that entails to their advantage.
Uh-oh, State Owned Enterprises
This vrot is supported by the systematic co-option of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Energy, Transport and Defense, to name a few, by the methodical replacement of board members with members hand-picked by the Gupta family and willingly placed by Cabinet ministers who had everything to gain for themselves and their families in terms of power, influence, position and money by going along with the process. Gaining control over the governance of SOEs has given the string pullers the means to then secure lucrative contracts for themselves and those close to them.
What sort of scale are we talking about? Just one recent random example is the whopping R5.3bn (about USD396m at current rates) that a Gupta-linked company, Tequesta Group, collected as a 21% cut of every deal that a subsidiary of China South Rail (CSR) managed to score. The most discussed of these deals was a tender won in 2014 to supply 359 locomotives to Transnet, one of South Africa's largest SOEs, which describes itself as "the largest and most crucial part of the freight logistics chain that delivers goods to each and every South Africa". The former Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan (we won't go into his story here, but it's extraordinary), recently estimated that at least R100bn (call that USD7.5bn, nice change if you can get it) has already been siphoned off the South African economy.
The culture of corruption and graft has filtered through to all levels of society as South Africans have, like the proverbial frog in a pot of water being slowly brought to the boil, gradually adjusted their own moral compasses as happens when vrot sets in. When rot is tolerated and promoted at top leadership level, graft and petty corruption thrive on the street.
Secret ballot
In a surprise announcement yesterday, after taking legal advice, the Speaker announced that parliamentarians would carry out this vote under a secret ballot. There are those who believe that means the ANC members who are disgusted by what their movement has become will vote with their conscience.
The ANC instructed its members to vote against the motion, mainly on the basis that voting for it would be to support the opposition's venal attempt at regime change. The opposition was united in saying that sure, they want to eventually remove the ANC from power, but today is about removing Jacob Zuma from power.
At least one courageous ANC member who committed publicly to voting with her conscience rather toeing the party line received well-documented death threats against her and her family.
While I was writing this
I got caught up watching the debate, the voting and then the outcome. So the answer is, to I hope nobody's surprise, that the President has survived his eighth no confidence motion.
So what incentivises politicians?
This is another interesting experiment in human behaviour, at the other end of the scale from my musings yesterday on why people don't kill pointsmen at intersections.
The writers of the American political drama series, House of Cards, are reportedly reeling from the unintended predictions they made in Season 5, which has eerie parallels with current political developments in the US. And oddly, in the Reputblic of South Africa.
In episode 58, just after his wife Claire, recently sworn in as President of the United States, warns the Democratic Cabinet members that if one state decides the election, "A lot of (your) incumbents will be in danger of losing their seats. And there it is", the main character, Sleaze-in-Chief Frank Underwood (played brilliantly by Kevin Spacey) looks to the camera and says : "Look. Look at them. That is the look of contemplating loss. Loss, the only constituent that anyone in this room really listens to."
So our struggle movement is reduced to struggling for a chance to keep eating at the table. And holding onto power. The only constituent they're listening to.
With apologies to Alan Paton for bastardising the title of his book "Cry the Beloved Country".
I went into mourning after the vote. I remain an eternal optimist and to be honest, I didn't think that the secret ballot would happen - I'm just hoping that even though the vote didn't go the way that most South Africans wanted it to, that perhaps there will be some sort of divine intervention that can pull our country out of the rot and bring us closer to where we collectively want our country to be.
Undoing this big mess is going to be long and hard. Let's hope - and great article.
Thank you, @tamwebess. You've summed up so well how many of us felt. Are you aware there's a South African Steemian group?
No, I wasn't. I only joined Steem yesterday - I'm very green. What are the details?
Hmmm, thought I'd be able to find the post easily but not so much (I'm on holiday doing this on my phone instead of my computer and it turns out my computer is the smartest of all of us). Suggest you search for #teamsouthafrica in the search box and you should find posts about it. I'm afraid I can't remember who posted originally about it, but we've made a list of South African Steemians which I'll be able to add you to once I get back in front of the Smart One. If I remember the name of the fellow who set it up in the meantime, I'll let you know. Cheers!
Great, thanks. And enjoy your holiday!
😊😊😊😊
And a belated welcome to Steemit! Fyi, there's a Steem Saturday coming up in Joburg 9 September at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways. Depends where you live if that will work for you, of course.
Thanks so much! I'm in Cape Town - otherwise would probably have come through.
Ah, there's quite a big group down in CT too. Try connecting with @alainite - offhand I definitely remember him living there. They had a gathering in July but who knows, may organise another one soon.
I stay just outside of Parliament in CPT. Got pretty noisy once it all went down. I see the Rand took a hit once again. I hope things get better for our country <3
Wow, that must have been interesting. I hope so too. We saw a number of deeply principled people take a stand over this, we saw the opposition weirdly united and we saw the ANC's true colours - and they're not the colours of South Africa. They're the colours of "I want mine", and I'm not convinced South Africans are going to take that much longer. :-) (I think)
Nice post. Very sad, after all the pain from the past. What I know or read about South Africa is that this country have big problems whit crime. It is all because of corruption in highest levels.
Thank you, @bloomberg215, much appreciated. You're right - crime in this country has a lot to do with corruption at the top ("a fish rots from the head"). What might be harder to see is how amazing and resilient South Africa's people are, and how close to the breaking point they are with this government. They have had it with being patsies for a bunch of thieves. We're in for interesting times here. But ultimately this is a great country because of South Africans themselves.
I didn't realise that a 'v' sounds like an 'f'. I'd probably have a pretty bad pronunciation since I'm terrible at learning and articulating a language.
Sad to see how people become tyrannous and only push for certain things and policies just so they can have support of the masses and push aside the minority just so they benefit and not the whole nation.
It is distressing how the liberties, freedoms and autonomy South Africa fought to have is being thrown away as it becomes a bureaucracy and more technocratic.
I hope this corruption is rooted out but it seems like it will take a lot of time before that happens @kiligirl
Afrikaans has some pretty difficult sounds for English speakers! After 20 years I still struggle with "r" since the Afrikaans r is said somewhere up on the hard palate, whereas in French (which I speak) it's deep in the throat. Let's just say they laugh at me when I try to put a sentence together. But yeah, it is said to watch the tyrants win. Maybe it's why Game of Thrones and House of Cards are so popular - the good guys don't always win. I don't think it's that South Africa is becoming a bureaucracy or more technocratic; it was pretty technocratic during the dark days of apartheid. It's more that it's becoming a kleptocracy, and the methods the bad guys have used have been impressive. Bad, but the planning and execution is truly awe-inspiring, not to mention the scale of their vision - "let's steal an entire country and make the citizens pay for it". Amazing.
We african are very irresponsibly corrupt because we didn't pay attention to our masters who colonized us, the way to do it better. So sad. The masters do theirs without anyone lifting an eyelid because they are way too perfect for anyone to notice. Poor Africans, if you can't perfect it just be honest and help your people out of poverty. Africa is a rich continent but the people just lost it.
Indeed. The Germans had it so institutionalised they used to be able to declare bribes as a tax deduction (not any more). Let's not even talk about the arms industry. And the previously colonised nations such as the US and Canada don't escape scott-free here, although I have to say the American governments policies are incredibly strict and difficult to circumvent (excellent) - in fact, it looks like thanks to the Guptas having used gmail for a lot of their nefarious e-mails they're now in really hot water with the FBI (rubs hands in glee). Canada is no boy scout either - my home province of Quebec has been cleaning out some ginormous rot (google the Charbonneau Commission if you want a view on insitutionalised corruption) for years now. Ugh. Greed and power, two vrotten bedfellows.
I tell you. It is just who we are. But we love to point accusing fingers like the British Prime minister.
It's human nature to want to take resources from "them", whoever "they" are. So it's important to politicians to define an enemy. The rest of us are guilty of it too. At some stage we always choose a "they" to point fingers at. Right now mine are pointed at politicians in general....
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STOPnice post
That must really suck. I come from Venezuela and I have seen that process with my own eyes. I was not aware of the situation on South Africa but that vote of no-confidence sounds like a nasty business. This social-democrat idiots think they will fix the economy with bureaucracy and regulations... Oh dear...
would like to know what u think of my writing! It would be my privilege!
Hi Kiligirl, I have already written my reply to your post. This is to say have a great time in France. Have been working diligently on a couple of new posts. Will look forward to some pics and political commentary about the French once you get settled in. Your friend. Ellie Mae🐓🐓
Thanks for introducing with the new terms.
Please upvote and help me to grow with steemit family.
i m newbie here. Here is my introduction post . Have a look.
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@raist/namaste-from-india-the-beautiful-city-chandigarh
Thanks
Dear @raist, welcome to Steemit! I hope you enjoy it here. Thanks for reading my post, but I must warn you that I made that word "vervrotting" up, so please don't use it 😊.
And a word of advice: generally people don't like it when someone asks to be upvoted on a comment on their post. I usually look at the account of someone who comments on my posts and will follow them if I like the content there. These days I don't look at the account of someone who asks for an upvote or a follow when they comment on one of my posts - it's a bit like you're having a chat with friends and some stranger walks up to you and says something like "I'm new in town. Please can I stay with you and be your friend." Most times people will say no.
Thanks for your advice. I will keep it in mind for future
😊😊
Hi Kiligirl. Granny thinks you'll be coming home soon fer some of her opossum stew! Ain't nobody can resist her stew ya know? Missing you! Ellie Mae🐓🐓 Ms. Jane's been chasin Jethro round the cement pond. He can run real fast when he has a mind to!
😂😂😂😂 Oh, Ellie Mae, you kill me! So great to hear from you. Yup, got back Monday night around 11, unpacked, picked up on work stuff, got groceries (didn't get any ingredients for opossum stew, so I'm mighty happy you already made some), organised photos and started my trip posts yesterday. First post is nearly done now. Just need to put photos in. Jeepers, it wasn't what I expected! Thought I'd have time each evening for a quick post. Bwahaha! We barely had time for supper each evening. But I'll share some of that in my posts.
Hope you've been well and I'm looking forward to catching up with you over this coming week. 😘😘😘
Sounds like a whirlwind of a trip. Action packed. So glad you are back home safe and sound. Kind of worried with the news coming out of Spain and France. Will read your post when I get home this evening. Have a great day! Ellie Mae🐓🐓
Nice to see another ZAFFA on here. Keep it up!