From rainbow nation to gangsta paradise: South Africa’s descent into corruption and cartel rule - Dirk Hartford

Key topics:As the Madlanga Commission peels back layers of collusion, SA’s leaders stand exposed as partners in organised crime, not its opponents.Phala Phala’s missing millions, the R2 billion Tembisa hospital heist, and the Gupta brothers’ escape route are not isolated scandals but symptoms of systemic rot.With private security outnumbering police four to one and cartels armed to the teeth, the state itself risks becoming just another syndicate with a flag..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. 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..By Dirk Hartford.As evidence at the Madlanga Commission into collusion between organised crime and the highest levels of our political and (in)justice system starts to join the dots before a stupefied nation, several other stories pertaining to the very top leadership of SA’s African nationalist political organisations are playing out in the background.The accused in the fantastic story of ANC and SA president Cyril Ramaphosa’s missing millions in cash from a couch at his Phala Phala ranch going on trial is one. Another is the ongoing investigation into Ramaphosa's nephew Morgan Maumela’s syndicate's R816 million rand role in the R2 billion heist from Tembisa hospital is another. His assets, including numerous luxury properties, four Lamborghinis, a Bentley and a boat, have already been seized by the NPA.R2 billion from a hospital with only 800 plus beds serving the poor. Repeat after me R2 billion. Its hard to grasp but the sooner we do the better.At the same time news broke that MK leader and ex-President Jacob Zuma’s key state capture operatives, the Gupta brothers Atul and Rajesh who stole about R50 billion, have secured asylum for themselves in the Central African Republic. R50 billion. Press repeat.This basically ensures they (and Zuma) will escape justice forever and ever amen. Like almost everyone else involved in state capture, despite the voluminous evidence gathered by the Zondo commission..Read more:.Police Minister Mchunu suspended over alleged criminal collusion, Ramaphosa launches judicial probe into syndicate infiltrating SA law enforcement.Last but not least, EFF commander in chief Julius Malema and his erstwhile comrade Mayibuye Africa leader Floyd Shivambu, were finally laid bare in all their corrupt crookedness in a just published book (Malema - money, power, patronage by investigative journalists Micah Reddy and Pauli van Wyk.)It should go without saying that all of this corruption and criminality, which has been a long time coming, could not have happened without the connivance of corrupt players in the private sector. The Zondo commission revealed that these were not just fly by night tender companies, but also the most esteemed consulting companies on the planet - the so-called big 4 - as well as Bains, McKinsey’s and TrillianA fish rots from its head down and everyone should now know that SA inc is rotten ripe now. Putrid in fact. Repulsive.The African nationalist project of Mandela has bequeathed us not a rainbow nation but a gangsta paradise.We have corrupt criminals sitting in parliament in hoc to cartels running syndicates specialising in drug smuggling, tender fraud, extortion, cash in transit heists, bombing ATM’s, assassinations, kidnappings…These political parties themselves are being financed by corruption so they can grandstand and virtue signal to the long suffering public about fighting corruption.We have a big problem South Africans. A big, dare it be said, apparently insurmountable problem.Pragmatists say wouldn’t it be great if corruption - a global phenomenon - could just be built in as a cost of doing business in SA. Say 10%. Moeletsi Mbeki whimsically wishes such when he tells a “story” of an African leader who when visiting Asia asks his host how he can afford his palatial mansion. His host takes him to a window overlooking the capital city and points to a newly completed freeway and said he took 10%.Later the Asian leader visits the African and is hosted in a mansion twice the size of his own in the capital. When asked how he managed, the African leader takes him to a window and points to a vast tract of vacant land and says hospital 100%.Seriously though, second level thinking is needed to address the problem so ubiquitous is crime and corruption at every level of our society. Obviously first level thinking points to cadre deployment, procurement processes, a dysfunctional and corrupt police and justice system as high priority areas to address. But how is this going to be tackled, and by who, in the circumstances prevailing ? Especially when the state at the end of the day can essentially be drilled down to bodies of armed men.Let's look, with Chat GPT’s help, through a glass darkly at the situation of arms in SA in worst case scenarios like a repeat nationwide of the July 2021 KZN anarchy or a coup by a malevolent dictator. Anything is possible in our circumstances when the nexus between guns and law and order is by no means clear. The cartel being revealed at the Madlanga Commission, for example, has its own private security companies.The SADF has around 75,000 people all in; the SAP about 180,000 and private security about 600,000 active and close to 2.5 million security guards registered.There are an estimated 2 to 3 million legal firearms in civilian hands and 1 to 2 million illicit guns, while the state has about 2.2 million weapons across the board.By way of comparison the USA, the most armed society on earth, has 1.2 guns per person or at least 350 million arms..Readmore:.ANC leaders defiant in face of US sanction threat.The government is currently trying to introduce legislation to curtail the number and type of weapons that private security can possess. There are about four times as many active private security people as police.A big chunk of both the police budget and personnel are for the VIP’s only though the proportion is difficult to ascertain. The most highly trained are in the VIP section. The blue light brigade.The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have shown that the future of war is in drones and robotics. It is not known how many drones there are in SA and in whose hands they are but the government announced yesterday plans to regulate drone ownership.In the context of a disintegrating state, with the centre not holding, these facts are pertinent and bring to mind the frightening Hobbesian notion - “To this war of every man against every man, this is also consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law, where no law, no injustice. Force, and fraud, are in war the cardinal virtues.”

From rainbow nation to gangsta paradise: South Africa’s descent into corruption and cartel rule - Dirk Hartford

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