Instead of wishing that politicians do not have business interests, it is better that we set stringent policies and laws in place, says Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.
Pretoria - If you are an employee or an employer, you probably have a fair idea about the circumstances that might make you lose your job or have to fire your worker.
Unlike many of us who enjoy the relative predictability of knowing what it is that could get us fired, cabinet ministers live day-to-day hoping that the powers-that-be still like them.
It is for this reason that blocking cabinet ministers from being involved in business is utterly unreasonable if they do not enjoy some security of tenure.
Our electoral system is such that, despite being on the list, politicians ordinarily do not even know they will go to the various legislature houses.
Until the day the president announces the cabinet, they do not know whether they will be backbenchers or part of the executive.
As cabinet ministers, heads of state does not need to explain themselves for why they have dropped a minister or shuffled their cabinet.
It is an established political fact that cabinet ministers serve at the pleasure of the head of state. As then-deputy president Jacob Zuma himself said when he was sacked by then-president Thabo Mbeki: “it is the president’s prerogative to appoint or disappoint”.
We repeat this as though it is a matter of mathematical certainty. I suggest we reconsider this and ask ourselves whether this is not yet another inherited political culture we have embraced without questioning if it fits with our lived reality.
Some might argue that nobody is forced to be a politician or a cabinet minister. Then again, nobody is forced to be a judge, yet society recognises the material sacrifices that many top lawyers make to serve their country by going to the bench. That is why judges have security of tenure and are paid their salaries for the rest of their lives.
Similarly, if we want politicians of value and substance we must accept that we will not find them in the jobless queue. They will likely be men and women who have found ways to make their own means.
I recognise that judges come with educational qualifications that do not make them parasitically dependent on the judge’s job, unlike politicians who could, in theory, be unemployable individuals trading purely on their political connectivity.
But for those with skills and livelihoods elsewhere, if we ask they serve their country, then there should be a way of giving them a sense that they are not playing Russian roulette with their careers and their families’ livelihood.
Put simply, we must give cabinet ministers security of tenure and make them sign transparent agreements by which they will be measured. If they do not live up to these, they should be fired.
We must remove caprice from the appointment of those to whom we entrust the direction of the country. Instead of crying foul that politicians are involved in business, we should rather set strict regulations and laws governing how they use their office.
Apart from being a farmer, I cannot see why it should be a scandal in itself that Parliament deputy Speaker Thandi Modise owns a farm, for example.
I cannot see how that can cause a potential conflict of interest.
Not everyone who enters politics has a trust fund or a spouse who can carry the family through hard times.
Instead of wishing that politicians do not have business interests, it is better that we set stringent policies and laws in place to ensure they do not see their positions as a licence to loot.
South Africa is not unique in that some business people might feel a strong sense of civil duty that they will enter politics.
To suggest that they sell off everything they own once they are appointed to the cabinet is unrealistic, especially when the power to act is so lopsided in favour of those who currently hold power.
Regulations governing politicians’ foray into business requires a firmer response and real consequences from the ANC than its current limp-wristed approach of asking offenders to “follow their consciences”.
If these individuals’ consciences were to be trusted, they would be no discussion about whether they need to fall on their own swords.
These laws must pierce through the false veil wherein politicians circumvent rules by having spouses trade government business, with other politicians’ spouses, all the while thinking everyone is either blind or a fool.
The ANC, as a dominant political force, must also see the self-interest in committing to a harder line. It is the party that is called corrupt when greedy individuals loot the state to feather their own nests.
In all, we need to check the unfettered powers the president has to appoint or keep so-called cronies and fire competent political foes while balancing this with the duty to keep leeches away from the purse and attracting our best men and women to serve their country.
* Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya is the executive editor at the Pretoria News. Follow him on Twitter @fikelelom
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