Re: [Marxism] ‘They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption - The New York Times

[Patrick Bond via Marxism]

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There they go again: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/22/opinion/south-africa-corruption-anc.html



On 2018/04/17 07:15 AM, Patrick Bond wrote:

On 2018/04/17 01:29 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
... I never would have dreamed that the ANC would end up as such a 
comprador bourgeoisie...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/world/africa/south-africa-corruption-jacob-zuma-african-national-congress.html 



Amongst other concerns about the original article, was the extreme bias 
in understanding South Africa's corruption crisis.


Whomever the /NYTimes /chose to write the follow-up editorial today just 
amplified the bias. Not a mention of SA's world-leading avaricious 
bourgeoisie. The lads in Sandton corporate offices - nearly all white - 
just got another pass.





The piece paints Ramaphosa as an untainted businessman trying to clean 
up the corruption. More on his record:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/20/in-south-africa-ramaphosa-rises-as-lonmin-expires-workers-women-and-communities-prepare-to-fight-not-mourn/

Worse, the NYT writers completely neglect the existing record of white 
corporate economic crime, which is persistently the world's highest. 
Indeed in February the (corrupt) consulting firm PwC, which does these 
measurements, again gave the SA bourgeoisie the gold medal in the 
world corruption olympics: 
https://www.fin24.com/Economy/sas-economic-crime-highest-in-the-world-pwc-20180227


How bad is the rate of corruption?: "eight out of ten top corporate 
managers do crime": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6cD5JzFZMo


Occasionally this orientation to corruption, driven by local and 
global corporations, is recognized within the ruling elite, but it's 
all too rare: 
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/05/in-south-africas-fight-between-hostile-brothers-the-zuptas-and-white-monopoly-capital-a-new-consensus-appears/


Meanwhile the SA bureaucratic petit-bourgeoisie has a mediocre 
ranking: the 109th most corrupt out of 180 countries in Transparency 
International's state corruption index: 
https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017


It would be interesting to gauge the impact on world-elite NYT readers 
of this kind of reporting, with its class and race biases.




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Re: [Marxism] ‘They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption - The New York Times

[Patrick Bond via Marxism]

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On 2018/04/17 01:29 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
... I never would have dreamed that the ANC would end up as such a 
comprador bourgeoisie...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/world/africa/south-africa-corruption-jacob-zuma-african-national-congress.html 



Here in Joburg this is an irritating read, because on the one hand it's 
useful for new details about a well-known scandal; on the other, it 
reproduces a pro-corporate bias that is no surprise coming from the NYT.


First, one revealing mistake in this piece: "While poverty has declined 
since the end of apartheid"... Indeed the rate has gone from 46% to 65% 
using the Upper Bound Poverty Line (of about $4/day), a measure the 
state persistently underestimates: 
https://theconversation.com/how-current-measures-underestimate-the-level-of-poverty-in-south-africa-46704


Second, here's a biased spin:

"Mandela did not understand South Africa’s political economy and agreed 
to a settlement that failed to secure black South Africans’ economic 
independence, said Mamphela Ramphele, an anti-apartheid activist who 
became close to Mr. Mandela. She later went on to serve as a managing 
director of the World Bank. “He didn’t know any better,” Ms. Ramphele said."


The plea of ignorance is not terribly unusual as an explanation, but it 
undermines the agency of the elites who managed the neoliberal 
transition. I worked in Mandela's Reconstruction and Development office 
and was chief drafter of the government's first White Paper in mid-1994. 
Here's a description of ten deals which Mandela was fully aware of and 
in agreement with: 
https://theconversation.com/why-south-africa-should-undo-mandelas-economic-deals-52767 



But third, and most importantly, this piece repeats the bias in 
mainstream commentary that the Pretoria Regime has been profoundly 
corrupt. The article includes the standard details about a few firms 
caught in the Gupta corruption nexus (another is Bell Pottinger, the 
London PR firm that was given a corporate death sentence last September 
due to its South African games).


"South African regulators have urged the police to begin a criminal 
inquiry into McKinsey, the American consulting giant, over its 
relationship with a Gupta-linked company in a contract involving a 
state-owned utility. A South African court has frozen the $83 million 
McKinsey was paid for the contract, and the firm says it will return the 
fee.


"Regulators say they have also pressed the police to investigate KPMG, 
the Big Four auditing firm based in the Netherlands, for its work for 
the national revenue service in 2015. KPMG has acknowledged that 
elements of the work “should no longer be relied upon” and offered to 
pay back its consulting fees.


"SAP, the German software behemoth, is being investigated by the United 
States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission 
after it disclosed payments to intermediaries on state contracts that 
may have contravened the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.


"International banks have been ensnared in the scandals, too. HSBC and 
Standard Chartered have been accused by a British lawmaker of laundering 
the Guptas’ ill-gotten gains. HSBC says it has closed a number of 
accounts that belonged to front companies operated by the Gupta family."



***

The piece paints Ramaphosa as an untainted businessman trying to clean 
up the corruption. More on his record:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/20/in-south-africa-ramaphosa-rises-as-lonmin-expires-workers-women-and-communities-prepare-to-fight-not-mourn/

Worse, the NYT writers completely neglect the existing record of white 
corporate economic crime, which is persistently the world's highest. 
Indeed in February the (corrupt) consulting firm PwC, which does these 
measurements, again gave the SA bourgeoisie the gold medal in the world 
corruption olympics: 
https://www.fin24.com/Economy/sas-economic-crime-highest-in-the-world-pwc-20180227


How bad is the rate of corruption?: "eight out of ten top corporate 
managers do crime": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6cD5JzFZMo


Occasionally this orientation to corruption, driven by local and global 
corporations, is recognized within the ruling elite, but it's all too 
rare: 
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/05/in-south-africas-fight-between-hostile-brothers-the-zuptas-and-white-monopoly-capital-a-new-consensus-appears/


Meanwhile the SA bureaucratic petit-bourgeoisie has a mediocre ranking: 
the 109th most corrupt out of 180 countries in Transparency 
International's state corruption index: 
https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017


It would b

Re: [Marxism] They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption - The New York Times

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Apr 17, 2018, at 12:41 AM, Michael Yates via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> One of the most disgusting things the ANC, including Nelson Mandela, did was 
> their treatment of Winnie Mandela. She fought tooth and nail to get her 
> husband out of prison. And she never abandoned her commitment to a radical 
> transformation of South Africa. She was bold, outspoken, and unafraid. Yet 
> Nelson Mandela was hardly out of his prison clothes than he threw her under 
> the bus. He move steadily to the right, and he had to know of the grotesque 
> corruption of the ANC. How could he not have known? Winnie was accused of 
> myriad crimes, including murder. Only the people knew she was true to the 
> cause. She is the true hero in that marriage. I suppose that some will say, 
> as they said about Syriza, well, that is the best that could have been done. 
> To which I say, bullshit. Like Zapata, said, better to die on your feet than 
> live on your knees.

Sean Jacobs’ piece in Jacobin on Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela-Mandela is 
essential reading for those interested in her life and legacy:

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/04/winnie-madikizela-mandela-anc-funeral-legacy 


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[Marxism] They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption - The New York Times

[Michael Yates via Marxism]

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One of the most disgusting things the ANC, including Nelson Mandela, did was 
their treatment of Winnie Mandela. She fought tooth and nail to get her husband 
out of prison. And she never abandoned her commitment to a radical 
transformation of South Africa. She was bold, outspoken, and unafraid. Yet 
Nelson Mandela was hardly out of his prison clothes than he threw her under the 
bus. He move steadily to the right, and he had to know of the grotesque 
corruption of the ANC. How could he not have known? Winnie was accused of 
myriad crimes, including murder. Only the people knew she was true to the 
cause. She is the true hero in that marriage. I suppose that some will say, as 
they said about Syriza, well, that is the best that could have been done. To 
which I say, bullshit. Like Zapata, said, better to die on your feet than live 
on your knees.


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[Marxism] ‘They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption - The New York Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(What a fucking disgrace. When I met with Thabo Mbeki in Lusaka, Zambia 
in 1990 or so, I never would have dreamed that the ANC would end up as 
such a comprador bourgeoisie. But then again, I have been involved with 
losing causes since 1967. What keeps me at it? I guess an unwillingness 
to be part of the great mass of humanity that accepts things as they 
are. That's why I value Marxmail. It keeps me from going nuts.)


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/world/africa/south-africa-corruption-jacob-zuma-african-national-congress.html
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