27 October 2019

After all the memes and laughter over Mmusi Maimane’s demise as the so-called leader of the DA have quietened down and firmly entrenched as part of SA’s opaque folkhood, the stark reality of white domination of the economy will remain a dark stain on the nation’s conscience.

The high drama over Maimane’s ouster serves as an opportune moment for black South Africa to reflect on the progress it has made since the dawn of democra­cy and the subsequent false new dawns that followed it.

Maimane, who shared the same misfortunate as another rising black DA leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko, is a microcosm of white South Africa’s resist­ance to accept black leadership.

The statistics of black leadership of SA’s listed companies is not only appalling but smacks of pseudo-transfor­mation in the control and management of Africa’s most industrialised economy.

Research conducted by accounting form PricewaterhouseCoopers has found 85.9% of CEOs of listed South African companies are white, followed by blacks (10.2%) and 2.2% Indian or Asian, while only 3.3% of the companies listed on JSE have female CEOs.

In the bigger scheme of things, the country’s opposit ion par­ty’s matorokisi dance is a sad reflection of what corporate South Afri­ca often does when confronted with the requirement to transform; it skillfully fidgets and writhes its way from complying, condemning another generation to the periphery of the mainstream economy.

 Use your powers and jail state looters

Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu reported this week in parliament that irregular expenditure in government and state entities continues to increase.

Makwetu said the upsurge in irregu­lar expenditure, which is explained as expenditure that was not incurred in the manner prescribed by legislation, has been a trend since 2016. This year, irreg­ular expenditure rose to R61.3-billion, from R50bn the previous year.

Makwetu said the spending of taxpay­ers money without following legislation was a “fertile place” for state resources to be diverted.

What Makwetu did not say is that it is through irregular expenditure that corruption is engineered.

Officials and politicians flout tender regulations for the purposes of looting state coffers for self-enrichment and patronage. That is, irregular expendi­ture is a method of stealing from the public purse.

In April, the Public Audit Amendment Act was passed into law, giving Makwe­tu far-reaching powers to refer cases of irregular and wasteful expenditure to law-enforcement agencies for prosecu­tion of those implicated.

For years, government officials and pol­iticians have been ignoring the findings and recommendations of the auditor-gen­eral. It is about time Makwetu uses his powers to pursue those responsible for irregular and wasteful expenditure of taxpayers’ money.