By Alec Hogg
After a post-Budget presentation earlier this year, one crusty cynic branded me a misguided Pollyanna. I’d been applauding how the new National Procurement office had saved South Africa from a VAT increase. My critic said I was myopic, that this was simply a juicy new target for plunders. What happened yesterday shows he may be right.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the office headed by Treasury heavyweight Kenneth Brown would eliminate R25bn in wasteful State spending. But as the cynic argued, there is an unintended consequence. For the plunderers, the Procurement Office is a R500bn prize to be secured through getting Brown replaced by the “right” person.
Yesterday, National Treasury issued a strong statement after the first salvo was fired by Mzwanele “Jimmy” Manyi and his Zuma-aligned “Decolonisation Foundation”. Manyi had used the national broadcaster to publicly air allegations of serious impropriety against Kenneth Brown.
Treasury says it “hopes Mr Manyi is raising this matter in good faith.” Fat chance. The truth is another battle has begun in the war for control of the public purse. The network of patronage lost access to over R100bn when voters kicked the ANC out of Joburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay. There are many squawking mouths that need feeding.
