Listen here.In the latest edition of NdB Sunday Show with Chris Steyn and Lauren Evanthia, the Founder of the Organic Humanity Movement, they talk about the authorities going after the R3million Bentley Continental GT that had belonged to President Cryil Ramaposa's nephew by marriage, Hangwani Morgan Maumela, who has been fingered as the Tembisa Hospital looting kingpin; criminal charges being laid against former Ekurhuleni City Manager Dr Imogen Mashazi who once turned up at a fashion event in an outfit estimated to have cost R3.5 million; NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim’s lifestyle under scrutiny with talk of a R5m custom-armoured BMW and an exclusive apartment; as well as the Zim wedding of a tenderpreneur’s son where the couple received US$20m in wedding gifts. Evanthia also comments on the re-defection of former MP Liam Jacobs back to the Democratic Alliance from the Patriotic Alliance; the deadly anti-immigrant riots; and plans to build South Africa’s biggest AI data centre in the Durban area..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:01.635)Welcome to the NdB Sunday Show with Chris Steyn and Lauren Evanthia, the Founder of the Organic Humanity Movement. Morning, Lauren.Lauren (00:12.942)Hi Chris, another crazy week in South Africa. And it's so great that we have this opportunity to share some of the highlights every week with the viewers because I think it's important that we get a bigger picture and that's the beauty about being able to take this twenty, thirty minutes and go through a number of stories, because I think it's important as we go about our days that we have an understanding of how the government is failing us from all sides.Chris Steyn (00:38.359)Absolutely. And today we have tender tycoons, we have political treachery, and we have human tragedy. Lauren (00:51.532)We so often talk about government corruption. It's part of our lives. It's been part of our lives for decades or two decades almost. And corruption is such an abstract word. But yeah, I'm excited that we get to hone in on the details to truly comprehend the numbers. Hopefully that gets us into gear a little bit with regards to our citizen action.Chris Steyn (01:17.433)Quite, let us go to some of the obscene opulence and the vulgar displays of wealth, so common amongst our tenderpreneurs and their beneficiaries. And there was drama at a car dealership when they went looking for a three million rand Bentley, Continental GT, that belonged to President Cryil Ramaposa's nephew by marriage, Hangwani Morgan Maumela.Lauren (01:50.39)Yes, and it's still nowhere to be found. It's just done a disappearing act. But this is all centered around the Tembisa scandal, the over two billion corruption scandal. Now we hear two billion, we hear the word two and we hear billion, and it sounds like we can comprehend that number. You cannot comprehend two billion. No one can comprehend two billion. It's two thousand millions. So I want you to try imagine a million rand…2,000 of those piles of a million Rands. It is absolutely incomprehensible. And the worst part for me, Tembisa Hospital, which is in Johannesburg, in a Tembisa Township, is in dire need of improvement. It's supposed to serve people that are reliant on government hospitals. They can't afford private hospital care. And just imagine, like bring it to the the micro level. Imagine your child, you've woken up, your baby has a fever of 40 degrees Celsius, and you now need to go to this hospital, or your elderly parent fell and is bleeding from their head, and you need to go to this hospital, and you come to this hospital, there's not enough staff, there's not enough equipment, there's not enough beds, the place is filthy. I mean, what do you do? That is unacceptable. So the most vulnerable of our society yet again gets the worst end of the deal when government is only focused on its own gain, government officials, tenderpreneurs, and everyone in between, family members and cousins and aunts and uncles that benefit from this process. So while people are suffering in the hospital, not getting adequate access to healthcare services, some guy is driving a Bentley somewhere, living his best life. We don't live in a democracy. This is an oligarchy. It is absolutely unacceptable. And you know, unfortunately we as a citizenry we just accept it. Because why? Because the middle class has figured out a way to circumnavigate government failure. We have our private security companies, we have our community policing forums to deal with crime, we have medical aid and private healthcare, we have private schools, we've got insurance, we've figured out how to still have a good life, even though everything around us is collapsing. And unfortunately, it's becoming more and more of a stark reality that we can't run away from government failure anymore…Lauren (04:09.728)…especially when infrastructure such as water infrastructure and electricity is collapsing and communities and suburbs around the country can go days or weeks without water or electricity. There's gonna come a point where the middle class cannot sustain its comfort any longer. On top of it, the government's trying to tax us to death, the economy is not doing well, people are losing their jobs, AI soon is gonna be a threat to many people's jobs.So at some point the middle class will reach breaking point. And when that happens hopefully then we'll finally realize that democracy is more than just voting once every five years and actually means holding government directly accountable by getting off your butt and getting out of your house and showing up somewhere and actually doing something about it. And I think the March on March organisation is a great example of that. And I think we're gonna be circling back to that a little later in this discussion.Chris Steyn (05:02.474)Mm. Well, Maumela also has a preservation order over several other luxury vehicles. But despite the fact that people died because of Tembisa hospital looting, that the whistleblower died, he has not been arrested.Lauren (05:19.798)It's unbelievable, and he's also nowhere to be found. And I mean, this is the problem and this is why I said last week why I was surprised, the KZN Police Commissioner is still alive with everything that he's said, because the whistleblower in this case finding herself not alive anymore. And this is what happens when people speak out, and this is why people don't speak out, and this is why the cycle continues. But unfortunately, yeah, the main man of the story is nowhere to be seen, which is a huge problem. It just shows that money buys your way out of everything. It means that when you reach a certain level of wealth, law does not apply to you anymore. You aren't governed. You're actually above governments. And this is what we are seeing. We have an elite class of politicians and extended relatives of politicians who've benefited from the tender tendering process. And they're above the law. That's what it looks like. That's the message that we as South Africans are getting.So I think this is just as a sign that we need to do something. We really need to use our democratic rights to hold our government accountable so that this doesn't happen. And yes, it happens at the ballot, but it also happens by speaking out and not accepting what what the status quo is currently. And this has been happening forever. We're just looking at a few stories. For every story that is highlighted, there is so much more happening that that we have not yet realised that will hopefully become exposed somewhere down the line.Chris Steyn (06:49.688)Somebody else who acted like she's above the law was Dr. Imogen Mashazi, the former City Manager of Ekurhuleni, and criminal charges have now been laid against her. She once turned up at a fashion event in an outfit estimated to have cost 3.5 million rand. And she also took a 3.5 million rand shopping trip on a private jet. Her bankroller is also facing criminal charges and apparently he benefited from some tenders.Lauren (07:26.86)Unbelievable. I hope they go to jail for that because that is an inconceivable amount of money. You know, as someone who was a nurse who worked in, you know, the care industry, who then managed to find herself in politics and climb the ladder and be successful, and then do this, knowing the extent of suffering, the extent of poverty, the extent of unemployment in South Africa is just so tone-deaf and disgusting. The one thing that all the different allegations against her….very interesting, but to me actually speak to the culture of the ANC as an organisation. I believe from what I've read, seen and experienced is that it's it's really like a Mafia organisation. That's how it works. That's how they buy loyalty. And this lavish, flashy lifestyle is all part of that. And I think it's like the norm now. I think many of the political elite, so to speak, or people in high positions within politics, it's become so normalised to them, this way of life that they are so out of touch with what's going on in South Africa. The average life of the average South African citizen, it's completely foreign to them. And I think it's really high time that we have a new government in charge and a new system as well. But I won't go into that today… but a completely new government where this just can't happen. We need to prevent something like this from happening.So it speaks to something wrong with the tender process, with the procurement process within governments at local level and at national level. And we need to have a look at it. There are solutions, there are alternatives, there are ways we can improve the procurement process so that this doesn't happen. But unfortunately there is no political will. Why? Because the politicians who have the power to make these changes, they're not going to do it because they're benefiting from this very, very weak tender process as it stands today.Chris Steyn (09:25.324)And when she appeared before Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, she stunned the nation with her arrogance and her disrespectful and demeaning behaviour.Lauren (09:35.297)Absolutely. And that's the tone deafness I speak of. It's so normalised. There's this kind of entitlement that once you have gone through the ranks in politics and have reached a certain level, there's this I'm a leader now, I'm entitled to all of this. And I think it's just the system is wrong. I don't think anyone that created the Constitution and the system we have now could really foresee the depth of not just corruption, but absolute greed to a level that is incomprehensible. And it's systematic. We need to create an environment where it's not possible for people that are this greedy to take leadership roles at all. And there needs to be accountability. There needs to be a two-way street between public representative and citizen. And that's not happening right now.Chris Steyn (10:26.254)Well, for the record she has denied the allegations against her and defended her lifestyle by saying she comes from a fashion-forward family. Somebody else whose lifestyle is under scrutiny is the General Secretary of the National Union of Mine Workers, Irvin Jim. There’s talk of a five million rand, custom armoured BMW and an executive apartment.Lauren (10:55.374)Cognitive dissonance comes to mind because Irvin is a very interesting character. He's also had a very interesting history, also a very humble childhood, plagued with trouble and difficulty, who entered as a young adult the job market, grew, climbed the ladder, you know, and now he has his career now that he has to be proud of. And he's been very vocally Marxist-Leninist in his ideology, obviously. I mean part of being part of the unions and everything, understandable. And he's criticised the ANC as well deeply and for not being more Communist than they actually are. And it's just the hypocrisy that baffles me. I don't get it. Because on one hand, he's all for the working class and he's always speaking out against White monopoly capital. But yet he's accepting gifts from an overseas billionaire.It's very interesting. So I don't understand what's going on in a person's head when you feel so connected to the cause of the working class, yet living this high life makes no sense. I suppose anyone can be bought, absolutely anyone can be bought, and that is a problem that we're sitting with in this beautiful country of ours, is that too many people in power are bought one way or the other. But we have to also have a look at why are foreign billionaires interfering in our country by giving gifts to influential people. Is this just a game to them? Is it like they're just playing a game of chess or a game of checkers with South Africa? Are they just going, let's see, let's like poke at the terrarium, let's see what we can do. Let's see what havoc we can wreak here. because they're just bored on a Friday afternoon. And unfortunately, yeah, this is the position we are in in South Africa. Really crazy. I mean I'd really love the viewers to just think about the insanity of our situation because we just go, I mean, tomorrow is Monday. Drop the kids off at school, go to work, you need to make sure you can pay the rent and buy your groceries and all the rest. So we just go day to day doing what we can to survive and life's getting harder and harder for everyone and the quality of life's getting more and more getting lower for everyone. So we're just trying to stay above water. But we have to just take some time…Lauren (13:16.344)…to just think about the gravity of the situation we're in right now. It's not gonna get better by ignoring the problem. It's not gonna get better if we just carry on with our lives and hope that somehow sanity prevails because it's not gonna prevail. It's just gonna get worse unless we do something.Chris Steyn (13:36.43)Especially with regards to tender corruption. We are dealing not only with our own tender corruption, but with the fall-out of tender corruption across the border. Where just the other day, the son of a tenderpreneur in Zimbabwe and his bride were showered with twenty million US dollars worth of wedding gifts.Lauren (14:00.429)Wow, I mean, what a way to start your young life, your young married life. I mean, that is true privilege right there. And yeah, it just speaks to a whole entire new industry where you can find true wealth being a tenderpreneur. And it's really shocking because we know that every tenderpreneur has earned all their money by completely exploiting and disadvantaging the citizens of their country, in this case Zimbabwe.And it's really, really disgusting. So government is not government, it's something else. We are basically being ruled by Mafia rings. And it's not only in South Africa, it applies to other countries as well. It's an enormous problem. There is no governing taking place, only ruling by the wealthy elite. And they're just trying to keep to save the people enough to not rise up so that the looting can continue. Quite a shocking situation.Chris Steyn (14:59.736)Zimbabweans who fled here for a better life, some of whom now have to flee back because of anti- immigration problems and unrest here.Lauren (15:13.068)Yeah, I mean that's this has happened since I think like two thousand and eight, if not earlier, and has recurred a number of times. An absolute tragedy that human life had to be lost. Absolute tragedy that the protest escalated to a point where there's been violence. I mean, I've seen some of the videos, read some of the articles, and my heart breaks for the foreign nationals who are being treated like this by their fellow human beings, because we're all human after all. It is completely natural for any human being who is struggling to try to find greener pastures. It is not their fault. South Africa, for instance, so we're the strongest economy in Africa. We've got South Africa, then Egypt, then surprisingly, Algeria, then Nigeria, then Morocco as the strongest economies in Africa, just overall. And South Africa and Egypt being the top two strongest economies, have the top, the highest percentage of immigrants, foreign nationals. So in South Africa, I think it's five to six percent, in Egypt, it's nine percent. But Egypt has much stricter laws. One of their laws, for instance, is that every time a company hires one foreign national, they have to hire 10 Egyptian nationals. And that's beautiful. That's fair. Because obviously you need to look after the people of your own country.Unfortunately, our government has failed to implement many of such laws. And Cyril Ramaphosa is apparently going to be addressing the nation at some undisclosed time in the near future about this issue. But just if you zoom out a little bit on a macro level and look at human beings, we congregate in cities, why? Because that's where economic opportunities are. And people who live in countries, maybe there's no war…. it's not like we are full of people from Sudan who are fleeing a war-torn situation as people seeking refuge. We've got people in relatively stable countries. Perhaps there is violence within the country between different groupings of people. Perhaps the economy is not so great, so perhaps the institutions aren't that strong. And so they will come to an area, and South Africa is the strongest economy, so it happens to be South Africa.Lauren (17:35.495)And I suppose our borders are pretty poor, porous as well, and we're surrounded by a coast, so that all makes a difference. It all adds to the ease at which people travel here. So naturally, people come to South Africa in search of opportunity. But on the other side, from a human and macro level, I totally sympathise with people doing that. But when you look at our country and the amount of suffering happening in our country, and I imagine you are taking your child to the hospital or you've just broken your arm and you're sitting in the queue and or your appendix is burst or whatever it is and you're in hospital and you're seeing a whole bunch of people from a different country in the queue before you it doesn't sit right with South Africans… totally totally understandably. We have a huge school problem in South Africa. There are not enough schools in South Africa. Every year there's a whole bunch of kids that are not placed and then there's this mad rush to get them placed before the first term ends. On top of that, there are so many schools that are overcrowded. There are schools in areas, just more disadvantaged areas where there will be like 60 or 70 kids to a classroom. Window panes are broken, not enough desks, not enough textbooks. Teachers are overworked and exasperated from what they have to deal with. Yet there's about unofficially 600,000 foreign nationals taking up place in these schools, built by taxpayers' money for vulnerable South Africans.So we've reached a point where we have to look at ourselves and say, as a family, we are struggling to feed our own children, so we can't go and extend help to our neighbours. Not yet, anyway. And I would love for South Africa to be in a position of strength where it is able to lend a helping hand to others under dire circumstances. But we're not there yet. There is so much suffering inside this inside our borders. We've got poverty, thirty-three percent unemployment rate. And it's that we really have to look after ourselves. So I understand where everyone's coming from, everyone that's been part of the protest. I do not condone violence. I always think there's always a peaceful avenue in which to effect change. Violence is never the answer. However, the frustration is completely understood. But all that frustration and energy and even destruction that's taken place, that should be directed at the government.Lauren (20:01.369)Failing to secure our borders, failing to implement laws that prevent foreign nationals taking jobs and all the rest.I mean, that's on the other side of the spectrum as well. Because companies and even individuals, it's easier for them to exploit workers who are foreign nationals because they are in a desperate situation. So it drives the wages down. When it drives the wages down, South Africans feel obligated to work for pittance and they can't survive on nothing, on almost nothing. So they either end up accepting those wages or end up unemployed. And it's just not fair. So we as a country, I believe, need to be selfish for the next 10 to 20 years and say, we need to clean up our own house first.So yeah, unfortunately I think that the violence has been horrible. I read that I think it was Mossel Bay. Was it Mossel Bay?.Lauren (20:57.463)A 19-year-old South African boy, 19 years old, that's just two years older than my own son. He was killed for being mistaken as a foreign national. I mean, how must his parents feel? Absolutely shocking. So we obviously need to tackle this immigration issue, but peacefully and through creating our stronger institutions.And I can't wait to see what the president says on this. I can't wait to see what he's proposing. And I can't wait to see if the government actually delivers. Because the prime job of a national government is what? To secure the borders of the country from outside threat. That's what a national government should do. That's why a country is supposed to be sovereign. A national government is supposed to protect that sovereignty. And that has never happened. I don't think that's ever been a focus since 1994. Since the liberation the protecting the sovereignty of this country has not been a priority, not in the slightest. And we need to start looking at how we can reclaim our sovereignty, especially in context of the global situation in the world right now.Chris Steyn (22:05.975)Let us hope when President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the nation apparently tonight that he doesn't just profess himself shocked, as he so often does when it comes to longstanding issues that the entire country is up in arms about, but magically escapes him. On to political treachery. Liam Jacobs, who defected to the Patriotic Alliance from the Democratic Alliance a year ago, is back with the Democratic Alliance. Your thoughts?Lauren (22:38.19)Well, I actually watched the video yesterday, the coming out video. It was kind of cringe. My thoughts are he Liam Jacobs for me looks like a career politician. It looks like he probably had political aspirations from young and he is still young. He studied in that line. And I feel like if you listen to everything that he says, because when you can read articles you can listen to what Gayton says, you can listen to what Geordin Hill-Lewis says. I like when it comes to reading about any of the people we discussed today, I like hearing words coming out of their own mouths. Because that's how you can tell more about who they are as a person. And I was really hoping, hearing from this young man from Kimberly in the Northern Cape who rose up the ranks and it doesn't matter in which party. I mean it sounds like a promising and hopeful story, but if you listen to the words coming out of his mouth, he doesn't say much at all. He says a lot of words, but of no substance. Just typical politicians speak, and that's very disappointing.So to me, it doesn't really matter. Even if he was the best activist and the biggest humanitarian on the planet, it doesn't matter whether it's with the PA or the DA. He's either going to be a useful puppet for the PA or he's going to be a useful puppet for the DA. Because when you're a Member of Parliament or even a councillor, what is your job? Technically, your job should be to represent your constituents. Your constituents are not your voters. Your constituents are the residents or citizens within your area of responsibility. And so, as a Member of Parliament or as a councillor, you're supposed to in theory represent your constituents, but actually, you represent your party. And your party represents more or less your funders - and that is the failure of our system. You're really just a bench warmer in w whichever level of government you're sitting at. And so it really doesn't matter.They can have their fun and games. I'm sure it feels like a victory to the DA. But I think people who support the PA, support Gayton MacKenzie because he's such a charismatic personality who is the face of the entire party.Lauren (24:55.546)And people who support the DA for their reasons will support the DA. I don't necessarily think that there's going to be this massive shakeup in supporters moving from one party to the other. All we're seeing is a young politician who realised he prefers the culture, the internal culture of one party over the other, and that's it. And he'll probably be rewarded with a nice position at some point. Yes, he said that he's just gonna be an activist for now, but of course, he'll be rewarded with some position at some point. You'll continue to benefit from the party system, people will continue to suffer. People will continue to suffer until the party system changes.Chris Steyn (25:33.203)There must be people in the Patriotic Alliance who wonder whether he wasn't just there to spy for a year. We'll have to see. Anyway, he's not going to admit to that, is he? Lauren (25:49.922)No one word, but Gayton did allude to it. I'm not. I'm not sure if you watched Gayton's response to Liam Jacobs re-redefecting, but he did allude to that. And I think it's always possible, and this is the problem. This is why when you work in the political system as it stands and do politics the way politics has been done for our entire democracy, so called democracy, it's interesting because you're so caught up in the drama that you don't actually… Every party has a goal. Every party has an ideology, every party has their principles and values. You're so busy with the internal drama that you don't actually, as a team, work together to implement your overall goal. And that's one of the biggest frustrations with the system. And that's why I always say the system has to change. And there is a way to change it, a very rational, logical way to change it that will improve the lives of everybody.Chris Steyn (26:44.769)That would involve politicians. Lauren (26:48.207)Still, yes, but without the party gang system. We have a gang system. People call it party politics. It's gangsterism that is best.Chris Steyn (26:56.917)Lastly, what do you think of Durban's plans to build the biggest AI data centre in South Africa?Lauren (27:04.621)That's an interesting one. I've been watching this AI development with suspicion for a very long time. There will be people who will tell you not to worry about the data centres. It's going to bring opportunities and employment, and it's not that bad for the environment. But they are lying. They are wolves in sheep's clothing. They probably have shares or stakes and somehow will benefit from the building of these data centers. We have 20 data centers in South Africa. You can go look online, find the locations. Check them out on Google Earth. I'd love the viewers to please go and do that so that the knowledge really becomes their own. There are plans for 60 more data centers. Data centers are very power and water intensive. And because it uses evaporative cooling to cool down the entire center, you need to continuously be putting water in. I think that there's also technologies that will replace data centres, but South Africa is always very late to the party. And so we'll probably build a hundred and realise we don't need them anymore, and then what's gonna happen? They take up a lot of space. But in the case of the Durban one specifically, there have been objections by councillors in the Durban local eThekwini local municipality. And this is a deal between the municipality and a Korean conglomerate. Now I don't care if it's a Korean conglomerate or an American conglomerate conglomerate, it doesn't matter which country they come from.The fact that a municipality or any level of government can make a deal with overseas organisations and companies completely disregarding the will of the people is what the problem is. As residents, and we have local government selections coming up very shortly, and one of the biggest things that strike me as insane is how residents have almost zero say over how their city or municipality or town is developed.These are decisions made in council and there should be public participation processes. It does not happen. If it does happen, it's usually undermining the citizens and their input. And these politicians just bulldoze ahead because of the financial benefit of allowing property developers or corporations to do their thing. So just on that one hand..Lauren (29:27.435)Just from that perspective, residents have no say in what's happening in the municipality and least of all with data centres - and the deals that these municipalities are going to be making with foreign companies is a huge crisis. It's not something we should take lightly. This again is another war on our sovereignty. I mean, yes, I want the economy to grow. I want the economy to get better. And we want economic opportunity in our country because people need to be employed. But we must be careful not to completely destroy our future in the process as well. There comes a time where economic development and technological development is actually harmful to the citizens of an area or even a country. And AI is gonna possibly take a lot of jobs. South Africa's not ready for it. Data centres are gonna take a lot of land, water and electricity. I don't think South Africans are prepared for it either.People will say, yes, but in the first, when the First Industrial Revolution happened, everyone was also scared for their jobs. However, there's a slight difference in 2026 to back then in the 1800s. And that difference is the world has become so wealthy and individuals have become so wealthy that it's completely possible for psychopathic billionaires to create technologies to completely wipe out humanity. They are more powerful than any government, more powerful than any ruler.And they have absolutely no democratic process to say, hey, I don't think so and so should build a rocket to explore space in such a way 'cause it might be detrimental. There's no input. So if you have enough money, you can override any government regulation and do what you want to this planet. And what are what are we gonna do? Us mere mortals. We have no recourse. And this is why we need national sovereignty with strong governments. Because we're living in a time where psychopathic megalomaniacs can do what they want with us. Our only hope is to have a network of stronger governments that can do something about that. And that's for me. I mean, I started an organisation as a political party called the Organic Humanity Movement. A number of people have laughed at the name. But I think we are moving into a time where people are gonna laugh no more. Organic Humanity Movement. In the light of the Fourth Industrial Revolution…Lauren (31:46.517)When hundreds, hundred thousands, hundreds and thousands of people, workers, are not employed anymore because every shop has a self-checkout machine, when data centres are taking up masses of land and water and there is load shedding and there's water shedding because the data centres need the resources and we come second in the whole deal, when that starts to happen, I think all of a sudden Organic Humanity Movement is not going to sound so absurd anymore. We really need to be as a citizenry, no matter where you sit on the political spectrum or even economic spectrum. We really as a citizenry, I think, need to be more conscious about what kind of future we want instead of just going with the flow thinking politics and business will influence the future. I think we as individuals can have a lot more say in what our future looks like. We have the power to do something about what direction South Africa goes in. And once we realise and awaken to that power, I think South Africa can start to look like a completely different country, a beautiful, magnificent country. I see South Africa as a future leader in the world of what a modern democracy can look like. And hopefully people start to catch that vision.Chris Steyn (33:03.88)Indeed. That was Lauren Evantia, the Founder of the Organic Humanity Movement on the NdB Sunday Show. With me, Chris Steyn. Thank you, Lauren.Lauren (33:15.385)Thank you, Chris.