After the hue and cry over the alleged state capture scandal - the so-called #GuptaGate - only one person stepped forward to be counted when all the dust had settled.
ONLY ONE?
Do we not have more people who are righteous, and who will step forward to right a perceived wrong, no matter which party turns out to be in the wrong?
Apparently not.
And now the inevitable mud-slinging has set in, with the SA Communist Party pointing fingers at the ANC, and the ANC pointing them right back.
On Tuesday, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the ANC investigation into the allegations of state capture by the Guptas, who are Zuma’s personal friends, became a fruitless exercise after only one person out of eight complainants was prepared to give a written submission.
On Wednesday, the SACP called the whole mess a “whitewash” . That was followed by the ANC saying that the SACP can’t accuse it of corruption if the SACP’s own house isn’t clean.
I suspect several parties are hoping the whole thing will die a quiet death now.
(As an aside, it’s erroneous to add “gate” on to the back of every single possible scandal. That term, as we know, dates back to a major political fallout in the US in the 1970s when there was a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, and President Richard Nixon's administration's attempted to cover up its involvement. The name came from the place, Watergate. So, if we’re going to add “gate” on to the back of every scandal, Watergate should really be Watergategate...)
Regardless, it’s scandalous to say the least that people will not stand up and say something when something needs to be said.
This is the same mindset that sees us all tut-tutting when an able-bodied person (sans a paraplegic sticker) parks in a bay reserved for those who actually need it; but not actually open our mouths for fear of being confronted, or slapped, or worse.
This is the same mindset that makes it possible for municipalities to incur irregular expenditure of almost R15 billion, mostly because they don’t follow the rules governing the procurement of goods and services.
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And that happens because someone takes a back seat and doesn’t say “hang on, you need to get that signed off, you can’t just process an invoice, and is that your brother’s company?”.
That’s why it’s refreshing to see people occasionally standing up and saying “that’s not right”.
Standing up
One such person is shareholder activist Theo Botha, who is well known for his fireworks at annual general meetings, and one of the main reasons journalists will attend these usually boring functions.
It’s fun to watch someone taken to task, especially when they do it so eloquently.
The reason Botha does this is because of his inbuilt sense of right and wrong. And he’s made a job out of getting to know companies intimately, and buying just one share so he can take them to task.
That’s something not nearly enough people have the time - or more importantly, the will - for.
Just recently a new figure appeared to take a company to task.
David Woollam, who was MD of African Bank after it bought Ellerines, has written a letter, to Lewis’s board , demanding that the listed furniture retailer start proceedings to declare its CEO, Johan Enslin, CFO Les Davies as well as non-executive chairman David Nurek and non-executive director Hilton Saven as delinquent in terms of the Companies Act.
Quite why he has written this letter was not made clear in Lewis Group’s announcement to shareholders, but it’s obvious he thinks there’s something remiss at the company.
At its most recent Annual General Meeting, he queried provisions made by Lewis for impairments and warranties.
Are Lewis’s directors delinquent? Only time will tell.
Read also: Zuma maintains his grip on SA
But what if they are, and what if no one said anything? Then any rot would continue.
That’s why the probe into the state capture scandal is a whitewash. But it’s not a whitewash by the ANC, it’s a white wash by those who didn’t back up allegations with fact.
And that’s why this country bleeds money.
* Nicola Mawson is the online editor of Business Report. Follow her on Twitter @NicolaMawson or Business Report @busrep .
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