Depending on the outcome of the cricket
this afternoon and if you live near the shadow of the e-toll gantries, you may
or may not be disposed to shuffle along to the gala dinner being hosted by the
ruling party. Neither the speaker (Comrade Gwede Mantashe) nor his – slightly
worrying – topic (Africa Today – 20 years since the liberation of Africa’s Last Country) looks at all appealing but
amazingly however, the event is free. And there are precious few free dinners
these days. I smell a rat. If you go
along, make sure to sit near an exit so as to be at the front of the rush once
they start to pass around the hat.
With the possible exceptions of major
utilities, free markets are likely to be the best suppliers of all other goods
and services. Governments, however, get elected on the promise that they are
far better than markets at allocating resources or more crudely redistributing
wealth. The idea of having a powerful protector capable of seizing stuff from
others thought to be wealthier and luckier than oneself is always appealing.
The flaws and difficulties here are numerous and include the processes by which
the donors and beneficiaries are identified. And then of course there is there
is the huge and apparently escalating problem that the protectors claim an ever
increasing share of the spoils for themselves and neglect to attend to the distributing
part of the deal.
Lionel October, the Director General of
the department of Trade and Industry became very expansive the other day and
promised that billions of rand would be pumped into manufacturing in order to
make good the underinvestment in the past decade. The tacit implication here is
that he and his staff have spotted customers who are demanding goods at prices
which would enable manufacturers to make a profit after costs. This is very
doubtful and the argument swiftly collapses into complaints that other
countries are protecting and supporting their industries with public money so
we need to do so too. If, however that is a good idea, then the process here in
SA involves unspooling endless lengths of red tape which somehow soon negates any supposed benefit
that a helping hand from the public purse might provide.
Among the busiest of state agencies is
the one searching for evidence of collusion and so-called anticompetitive
activities within the private sector. After seeking things to tax the next most
popular activity of government is seeking reasons to harass private enterprise
where undeniably the idea of impeding one’s competitors is popular. But in the
end, if the secret agreements really lead to excessively profitable businesses
then, it will soon enough attract rivals and competitors whose appearance is
far more effective in curbing excesses than a bus load of bureaucrats demanding
to look at your books and then levying fines which oddly never go to the overpaying
customers.
This week’s list of senior public
servants whose moral judgement may have lapsed or whose ability to distinguish
between personal and public monies has collapsed includes the acting CEO of
Eskom, the Chief of the Electoral Commission, the Director General of the
Department of Basic Education and the Mayor of Tlokwe (no I don’t know where
this is either). And add to this list of
course our President. Why are we able, every week, to add at least half a dozen
names to this rogues gallery? Are our leaders really so much more corrupt than
others before them or elsewhere? Perhaps it is because we in South Africa
actually now have an astonishingly permitted and encouraged climate of freedom
and openness that exposes so many of the crooks. The system fails everyone
though when it fails to press on and swiftly either clear or convict the
accused. And in those cases where guilt is exposed the punishment is promotion
and redeployment rather than dismissal. We need to work on that aspect next.
The Sharks have a bye, the Lions have a
tough one and the Proteas by now will have shown their intent. Formula 1 has a
GP in Bahrain,
but suddenly I don’t much care. These new engines and rules are a ludicrous and
misguided attempt to “green” a sport that needs to be the antithesis of that
lifestyle.
James Greener
Friday 4th April 2014
