Nicola’s Notes: Counting the cost

Nicola Mawson, IOL Business Editor. Picture: Matthews Baloyi

Nicola Mawson, IOL Business Editor. Picture: Matthews Baloyi

Published Oct 2, 2015

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The cynic in me couldn’t help but wonder how much the anti-corruption march on Wednesday cost the economy, even though those who joined in were doing so for a good cause.

I’m not sure how many people eventually marched, but reports indicate thousands joined in. I wasn’t there myself, as I was behind my desk ensuring copy flowed, but by all accounts, it was well backed.

Callers into Radio 702 that morning suggested South Africans showed their solidarity by putting SA flags - remember those from the Fifa Soccer World Cup - back on cars.

More than 350 civic-rights groups, religious organisations and labour unions backed the demonstrations in Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban.

Although most of those who went out against corruption would have needed to take the day off work, which wouldn’t have cost their company anything, they would have been lost as a productive employee for the day.

Let’s assume that the march had the same effect on the economy as a strike.

At the height of the four-week Numsa strike, the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry claimed over R300 million was lost daily by the economy.

Wednesday’s march may not have had quite the same effect; but let’s assume for the sake of argument another R300 million was wiped off SA’s gross domestic product.

Let’s add that to the R6 billion or so we’ve lost because of rolling blackouts - my bad - load shedding.

It’s no wonder the economy contracted 1.3 percent in the last quarter, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it did actually contract again in the third quarter, putting us firmly into a recession.

We can’t afford this; we can’t afford to not be productive and add value and grow exports, the economy and jobs.

But we also can’t afford corruption.

According to Solidarity’s most recent report on corruption - which wasn’t at all in-depth, as all the union did was grab numbers from press reports and put out a small report - graft has cost this country at least R4.4 billion over the past few years on everything from bribery to tenders awarded without proper procedures being followed, and overspending.

This is a rather damning state of affairs.

It gets worse when you delve into the Auditor-General’s reports.

State entities wasted R1.17 billion in the year to March 2014 and incurred R33.6 billion in irregular expenditure, according to the nation’s auditor-general. I can’t wait to read this year’s report, she says sarcastically.

Adding up all these figures points to a growing hole in SA’s economy. One that we can ill afford.

Corruption needs to stop, and it needs to stop now. We need to start respecting institutions like the Auditor-General and the Public Protector and start punishing those who rob our taxpayers, instead of simply letting them leave government employment and assuming that the case is now closed.

Because if we feel - as a nation - that we have to take another day off work to protest against a cancer that is eating away at our society, then we are also hurting our country by not sitting productively behind our desks.

Even if the amount lost is minuscule in comparison to what we are protesting against, it’s another loss we cannot afford.

But hey, at least those who took the day off didn’t feel it in their pockets.

According to the Department of Labour’s 2014 annual industrial action report, workers lost R6.7 billion in wages in 2013 because of strike action.

* Nicola Mawson is the online editor of Business Report. Follow her on Twitter @NicolaMawson or Business Report @busrep.

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