Complex tables tallying government spending and macro-economic forecasts presented in the rarified atmosphere of Parliament last week where the medium-term budget was tabled hide the real victims of ANC corruption and economic mismanagement. As a media release from the Western Cape Human Settlements department shows: giving another R17bn to failed state carrier SAA means 6,000 poor people will no longer be given property title deeds in that province.
Human Settlements Minister Tertius Simmers highlights a valuable lesson from Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto that property equity is a vital key to helping people to help themselves. āA Title Deed opens up a variety of opportunities for recipients and their families to create wealth for themselves and their loved ones. It therefore also stimulates the economy and can help create jobs,ā he says in a statement, which sets out the impact on human beings of re-allocating R23m from his department to the SAA pot.
With billions more earmarked for other inefficient, corrupt state-entities in the national budget, there will inevitably be many more people elsewhere who have to pay the price. Meanwhile, evidence that state entities like SAA and Denel have been useful sources of funds for Jacob Zumaās son Duduzane and friends continues to pour out at the Zondo Inquiry into State Capture (you can catch up on the highlights,Ā download the BizNews Digest).
PS: Serial entrepreneur Alan Knott-Craig shares reasons to be optimistic about the long-term future of South Africa. In an uplifting article, he reminds us, here, why SA is a country of miracles.Ā
