umsebenzi_online logo.gif
Umsebenzi Online, Volume 18, No. 03, 31 January 2019
In this Issue:
. The Guptas, Aggrizzi and the Watsons, Bain & Company, McKinsey &
Company, KPMG, SAP, Naspers' MultiChoice; the parasitic bourgeoisie and
imperial and apartheid era monopoly capital: A review of the Commission of
Inquiry into the corruption of state capture
Red Alertumsebenzi_red alert.gif
The Guptas, Aggrizzi and the Watsons, Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company,
KPMG, SAP, Naspers' MultiChoice; the parasitic bourgeoisie and imperial and
apartheid era monopoly capital: A review of the Commission of Inquiry into
the corruption of state capture
By Umsebenzi Online
The first to expose and characterise corporate state capture, and the first
to call for the judicial commission of inquiry into the capture
The SACP is the first formation in our body politic that characterised the
widespread corruption increasingly entrenched, post-1994, in the last decade
in our state as corporate capture. The shorthand "state capture" that is
used widely in the media, the economy, politics and elsewhere in the battle
of ideas emanated in our national discourse from this analytical
intervention by the SACP.
The corruption of corporate capture of the state was forged through a nexus
involving, on the one hand, sections of public representatives and state or
public sector officials, including board members and executives of public
enterprises, and, on the other hand, parasitic bourgeoisie elements,
domestic and foreign, including sections of apartheid era and imperial
monopoly capital. The venal, corruptible and corrupting class forces were
brought together by the greed of self-enrichment through the exploitation or
theft of public resources and national wealth.
".unless corruption and corporate-capture are dealt with severely and
decisively these problems risk becoming systemic and difficult to reverse",
said the SACP in its Augmented Central Committee statement on 30 November
2014 in exposing the corporate, and in many ways also mafia, capture of
state authorities. The SACP further called for decisive action to be taken.
"There are... widespread indications of money politics at play and even of
business people having a direct hand into appointments into key positions
within the state", the SACP said. "The best weapon against these dangers is
two-fold", further said the Party, identifying, firstly, "decisive state
action including criminal prosecution of those allegedly involved in corrupt
activities". In the same vein, the SACP called for the capacity of the
courts to deal effectively and efficiently with the scourge to be enhanced.
The second measure that the Party indentified was that of combining the
anti-corruption state intervention "with active communities and a united and
mobilised working class".
The Party led by example and started the mobilisation.
As part of the demands, the SACP was again the first to call for a judicial
commission of inquiry into corporate state capture. The Party unveiled the
call publicly on 7 March 2016 through the Central Committee Secretariat
represented by Comrade Solly Mapaila, then the SACP Second Deputy General
Secretary.
A follow up statement issued by the Party on 16 March 2016 pushing the call
marked the nodal point of change. The SACP revitalised on an intensified
basis the anti-corruption campaign known as the Red Card Corruption Campaign
that the Party launched in 2010. This time focusing on fighting the
corruption of corporate state capture, the SACP moved the demand for the
establishment of a judicial commission of inquiry on to the campaign
platform pushed it consistently.
Initial reaction by parliamentary parties and sections of
extra-parliamentary organisations
Parliamentary parties and sections of extra-parliamentary organisations
reacted by first rejecting the call for a judicial commission of inquiry
into corporate state capture. They maintained this reaction until the former
Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, in her "State of capture" report dated 14
October 2016, prescribed the commission as a remedial measure. This
prescription, of the commission as a remedial action, was preceded by a
resource and time constraint investigation that she necessarily had to leave
incomplete. In addition, the situation coincided with the end of her term of
office.
The remedial action prescribed that the Chief Justice should solely select
the judge who would head the commission. The reason for this innovation -
which reshuffled the balance of forces in favour of the call first made by
the SACP - was that the President was implicated. This constitutive
criterion of the commission should not be forgotten as it is very important
to the work of the commission.
The terms of reference of the commission were accordingly based on the
allegations contained in the "State of capture" report. The commission was
thus assigned with the duty of completing the work of the former Public
Protector, to investigate the allegations contained in the "State of
capture" report as the basis of its terms of reference, that is, its
investigative inquiry into the wider phenomenon of state capture.
The SACP is inherently interested in the success of the commission and its
work, first and foremost as the first political formation in our national
discourse to expose corporate state capture and both call for and mobilise
for the establishment of the commission.
Testimonies given at the inquiry and implications
The testimonies that have so far been given at the Commission of Inquiry
into State Capture, as well as at the Commission of Inquiry into Tax
Administration by the South African Receiver of Revenue expose systemic
problems relating to the organisation of our state and state-society
relation. Instead of building organic state capacity and fostering strategic
discipline to achieve transformation towards a truly capable national
democratic developmental state, the South African state has increasingly
become more embedded in the profit driven private sector, whose central
motive is capitalist wealth accumulation.
As a result, the state is more organised around private companies
particularly in terms of economic production. In this scenario, the
bourgeoisie is the economic ruling class. Its political power resides in its
control of capital. This is used to delimit the realm of state or public
policy making, condition policy direction and influence policy choices.
Ascendency into the capitalist elite class or competition within its ranks
between different sections is driven or sustained through state capture,
among other strategies. This occurs in many ways, including through the
career paths of public representatives, executives or officials of state
establishments or public entities.
It is thus common for a public representative, executive or official from a
state or public sector authority that regulates a particular economic -
mostly private - sector to land a job or an appointment in one of the
companies falling in that sector. This has in fact become an exit strategy
from the state or public sector on the part of others, and is also one of
the entry points of corporate capture or through which state regulation is
stifled.
In this scenario where the state is economically embedded in the private
sector, the delivery of public goods and services is thereby defined,
whether in the Public Finance Management Act, Municipal Finance Management
Act, related National Treasury regulations, or in other areas of
legislative, regulatory and decision-making importance in the state. These
legislative and regulatory instruments were correctly intentioned to ensure
good governance.
However, they were not designed to go beyond the realm of the prevailing
capitalist mode of production, that is, to construct a national democratic
economy proper. The result is that these governance and regulatory
instruments both maintain the capitalist paradigm and form part and parcel
of the framework for managing its social relations, including competition
between private companies for monopoly. This includes, as a systemic
trajectory, competition for outsourced or privatised state functions or
assets.
In this schema, the prevailing regime of tenders, or tenderisation, serves
as one of the entry points for corporate capture of state authorities, the
epicentre of the corruption of state capture. The same is to be found in
water, mining and maritime related licences, among other areas in which the
state relates to the rest of society, that is, the working class and poor,
through private companies. However, what we are faced with is by far more
than that.
It is a reinforcement of the economic-political, base-state superstructure
system involving embedding the state in capitalist economic control and its
consequent forms of political influence, including influence on its
authorities and their exercise of state power. The capture of sections of
state authorities by private companies through bribery, shares, sleeping
partners, career paths or related state or public sector exit mechanisms, or
other methods that have, or have not been identified at the Commission of
Inquiry into State Capture, is a product of capitalist private monopoly
competition.
Bourgeois or right-wing commentary or reaction does not move from the
appearance to the essence, the crux of the matter, that is, the root of the
problem, and is therefore devoid of any substance calling for a system
change.
What is to be done?
It is absolutely obvious that any person who is implicated and found,
whether on the balance of probabilities or proof beyond a reasonable doubt,
to have been complicit in corruption or wrongdoing, must be removed from
office.
Further, prosecution for complicity in the corruption of corporate state
capture or any form of perversion should be seen actively taking place.
However, this cannot be limited to state authorities or public sector
representatives and officials gone rogue. Private companies and their
directors, or whoever is implicated under their banner or in any private
capacity, must also be prosecuted.
In the same vein, implicated foreign controlled multinational corporations
or consultancy firms, to name but a few, Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company,
KPMG and SAP, must also face the music, and with equal legal force, as
should be the case with the Guptas and the like, the parasitic or lumpen
bourgeoisie, as well as all implicated sections of apartheid era monopoly
capital.
Those who captured the communications policy space, or in whose private
wealth accumulation interests the broadcasting digital migration policy was
deliberately forged, and those who hollowed out the SABC, our public
broadcaster, as well as other public entities or state owned enterprises,
should not be left out but must also be held to account for their actions.
The capture of the digital and satellite television broadcasting space by
MultiChoice, a subsidiary of Naspers, the mouthpiece of the Broederbond, the
vanguard of apartheid; inclusive of the collusive MultiChoice-SABC capture
deal and the political-economic or business connections with and payments
received by the Guptas from MultiChoice, for example via their now defunct
ANN7 television broadcast channel, should likewise not be left out but
should equally be dealt with decisively in terms of the law.
In the same vein, the recently implicated Watsons, as should be the case
with every implicated person, should voluntarily stand up and approach the
commission to account for their actions. Otherwise the Chairperson of the
commission, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, should invite them to be
held to account. The self-confessed racist, Angelo Aggrizzi, is himself not
an angel.
Therefore the response by the South African Human Rights Commission to
initiate legal proceedings against him at the Equality Court for his racist
comments should be welcomed by everyone. After all he is an accomplice in
many of the actions of wrongdoing he attributed to the Watsons. He must
therefore be held accountable not only for the racist remarks and beneath
the surface also for the racism from which he founded the remarks.
No stone must be left unturned
The spring cleaning should also cover the South African Police Service,
inclusive of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks)
and Crime Intelligence, as well as the National Prosecuting Authority. The
testimonies that have been given at the commission clearly suggest that
there were rogue or captured elements "killing" state capture corruption
related investigations or cases in the ranks of these state organs.
There must be accountability to the full extent of the law, on why on earth
the corruption took place as if the crime and corruption prevention,
investigation and prosecution organs of state were non-existent. A
thoroughgoing investigation into what happened inside of, and surrounding
these state organs, leading to their fatalistic attitude to the corruption,
is required in order to answer the question and rebuild public confidence in
their work.
Related to the above, on 16 June 2018 President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed a
high level review panel to "identify all material factors that allowed for
some of the current challenges within the (State Security) Agency (SSA) so
that appropriate measures are instituted to prevent a recurrence. The main
objective of the review panel is to assist in ensuring a responsible and
accountable national intelligence capability for the country in line with
the Constitution and relevant legislation".
In addition, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Intelligence
subsequently concluded, that is by the end of 2018, that the plundering of
the funds that were allocated to the SSA should be reinvestigated and that
the scope of this fresh investigation should cover the so-called Principal
Agent Network. Those who were involved, including at the highest possible
levels, should be exposed and held to account.
System change
The prosecution and replacement merely of complicit individuals in what has
proven to be a corruption prone system will, while absolutely necessary,
alone not be sufficient. Complicit private companies must be blacklisted by
the state, and this should be enforced with equal force in the economy at
large rather than only in the state. Limitations on the reappointment or
redeployment of complicit individuals, which should apply both in the public
sector and the economy at large, must be erected and strengthened by way of
reinforcement, strict implementation and compliance monitoring.
In the same vein, the exit of state or public representatives and public
sector officials who land appointments in private companies that either
located in the sectors regulated by the respective state authorities or that
have at any state received, or may later receive a contract/tender from the
state should be scrutinised and regulated by way of strict limitations.
Above all, the system in terms of which the complicity in the corruption of
corporate state capture became possible should not be left unchanged. The
importance of this system change cannot be overemphasised.
In political terms, a post-colonial u-turn from the revolutionary mission
forged by national liberation movements during the course of the struggle
paved the way in many situations for corporate state capture as well as for
a diversion to a related politics of reformism. A phenomenon starkly
resembling similar characteristics is discussed in detail by Franz Fanon in
his critique of what became, but not inevitable, of certain national
liberation movements in post-colonial societies. Particularly what Fanon
described in his book, The Wretched of the Earth, as "The pitfalls of
national consciousness", which is both the focus and title of Chapter 3 of
the book, merit a serious study by revolutionary democrats and progressives
alike.
For the purpose of clarification, in the case of South Africa the democratic
breakthrough of 1994 can be described as having marked the inception of the
post-colonial epoch given that the apartheid regime was a form of colonial
rule, in terms of the theory of colonialism of a special type formulated by
the SACP in 1962 to characterise the colonial oppression of the majority in
what had been declared as a republic. However, the overthrow of the
apartheid regime three decades later, in April 1994, did not do away with
the colonially imposed prevailing mode of production which was, and remains,
capitalist.
Therefore governance in South Africa, in Parliament, in the Executive and
government in general, as well as in the judiciary and other state organs or
public establishments, is still exercised on the foundation of what is
historically a colonially imposed mode of production. In addition,
imperialist domination and exploitation, which Lenin characterised as the
highest stage of capitalism, have not only remained intact but have further
penetrated.
This is the context in which post-colonial corporate capture of the state
has occurred in South Africa. The tendency of narrow nationalism, discussed
by Fanon in the "Pitfalls of national consciousness", its post-colonial rise
to dominance and conception of transformation paved the way for the capture
and recruitment of former revolutionaries to the ranks of the capitalist
class through the promotion of private wealth accumulation.
In a sharp contrast to the tendency, the ANC in its Strategy and Tactics
adopted in 1969 in Morogoro, Tanzania, correctly declared that "our
nationalism must not be confused with chauvinism or narrow nationalism of a
previous epoch. It must not be confused with the classical drive by an
elitist group among the oppressed people to gain ascendancy so that they can
replace the oppressor in the exploitation of the mass". It is clear from
this revolutionary point of view that, in addition to the essentially
necessary commissions of inquiry that are in session to help us tackle the
corruption of corporate state capture, we need to initiate a complementary
political process.
At the heart of the political process should be a review of the policy
trajectory that was enforced in government after 1994, notably starting with
the neoliberal 1996 Growth, Employment and Redistribution political-economic
class project policy. We need to ask vexing questions about the u-turn that
has occurred from, and in response reassert both in the movement and the
state, the national democratic revolutionary values we developed in our
liberation struggle.
The extent to which, for example, the post-1994 trajectory of black
capitalist development, together with its political-business connections in
colonial and apartheid era and imperialist monopoly capital has either
contributed to, or been exploited to forge the corruption of corporate state
capture, should not escape scrutiny. The direly required political process
should help us reverse, deal radically with, and dismantle corporate state
capture networks not only on the surface but deep down in the economic base
where their material basis is anchored. This way forward should be guided by
the principle correctly articulated by the ANC in the Morogoro Strategy and
Tactics when it declared that:
"Our drive towards national emancipation is therefore in a very real way
bound up with economic emancipation. We have suffered more than just
national humiliation. Our people are deprived of their due in the country's
wealth; their skills have been suppressed and poverty and starvation has
been their life experience. The correction of these centuries-old economic
injustices lies at the very core of our national aspirations. We do not
underestimate the complexities which will face a people's government during
the transformation period nor the enormity of the problems of meeting
economic needs of the mass of the oppressed people. But one thing is certain
- in our land this cannot be effectively tackled unless the basic wealth and
the basic resources are at the disposal of the people as a whole and are not
manipulated by sections or individuals be they White or Black."
This way forward should underpin what the ANC meant on 24 January 2019 when
it tweeted that it acknowledges past mistakes and declared that we are in a
period of "cleansing", that is, in the context of the various inquisitorial
commissions of inquiry established in the fight against corruption.
The importance of resolute and decisive party discipline
Last, for now, but not least, we also need a thoroughgoing organisational
review process because, as things stand, it is very clear that
organisational discipline has either collapsed or was not rearticulated in
the post-1994 period in relation to the conduct of deployed members in the
state. The conduct of a true cadre should bring credit and attract support
to the movement as opposed to anything on the contrary.
The paralysis in organisational discipline, as well as, linked with it,
excessive dependency on state investigative, inquisitorial and prosecutorial
processes, is likely to continue feeding the roots of the organisational
exposure to the adverse political effects of serious allegations of
corruption and wrongdoing.
The process to achieve the absolutely necessary reconfiguration of the
ANC-headed Alliance should include a focus on developing a proactive system
of revolutionary democratic organisational discipline to hold deployed
members to account and to act in advance against any unbecoming conduct on
the part of any member rather than wait for processes and inquiries taking
place in the state.
The benefits of decisively acting against a member who becomes corrupt and
proactively removing that person from any organisational and public or state
responsibility outweigh the laxity that often results in that person
exposing the movement to corruption related attacks and associated
consequences.
--
UMSEBENZI ONLINE IS THE VOICE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WORKING CLASS
ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | THE SACP
___________________________________________________________
Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo
National Spokesperson & Head of Communications
Mobile: +27 76 316 9816
Skype: MashiloAM
_____________________________________
CIRCULATION, MEDIA LIAISON SERVICES
Communications Officer: Media Liaison Services, Digital and Social Media
Co-ordinator
Hlengiwe Nkonyane
Mobile: +27 79 384 6550
___________________________________________________________
OFFICE, WEBSITE, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, USTREAM TV CHANNEL
Office: +2711 339 3621/2
Twitter: SACP1921
Website: www.sacp.org.za
Facebook Page: South African Communist Party
SACP Ustream TV Channel: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sacp-tv
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Umsebenzi Online" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
