Alec Hogg says SA deserves its 90% corrupt rating, urges business and Zuma to do something about it, starting with pals of crooked cop Jackie Selebi.
Dear Mr Zuma,
Given some of the stuff written lately, one can't blame you for being sceptical about anything from the Fourth Estate. But the national mood is so dismal, that I hope you'll replace prejudices with a generosity of spirit by reflecting on what follows.
Neither of us should have been surprised that yesterday's TNS survey on corruption painted a bleak picture. But to read that 90% of South Africans believe corruption has become a way of life in our country must have come as a shock even to one who interacts regularly with ordinary citizens, as you do.
It's just perceptions, I told myself. Things can't be that bad.
Then I started replaying things in my mind. And remembered how just last night my teenage daughter told of an acquaintance who was so drunk after a night out that he forgot to take off a ballet tutu he was wearing. On his one-eyed weave home, the tutu-wearing drunk was pulled over by a SAPS officer.
But there was no night in jail and an embarrassing court case for this accident-waiting-to-happen. My daughter says the lad's only complaint was that because he was so smashed this time, it cost R600 to bribe the boy in blue. Much more, he bragged, than he usually had to fork out.
That also got me thinking again about the Glenn Agliotti affidavits.
Remember, those sworn statements signed by the self-confessed gangster and "friend, finished and klaar" of our crooked SAPS Commissioner Jackie Selebi. Just in case they've been kept from you, the affidavits are at the bottom of this page.
They are morbidly fascinating, reading like a sick novel.
In his effort to cut a deal, Agliotti now doesn't seem to know what he believes nowadays. But his affidavits are so specific and obvious that there can be no doubting the veracity of much which emerges from his gut-spilling. It might even have been an addendum to economist Steven Levitt's Freakonomics where the New Yorker delved into the criminal world to see what made the underclass tick. Insights that are similarly obvious in Agliotti's contributions.
What immediately strikes one about the Agliotti masterpieces is how immune we've become to the laws that have shaped functioning societies for thousands of years. Respect is no longer the preserve of the good and righteous. Now it seems to be granted universally to anyone who has lots of money. Somewhere we simply stopped questioning how the suddenly wealthy came by their riches.
One Gavin Varejes, a star in Agliotti's affidavits, is a case in point.
How can it be that a man who wined and dined our crooked chief of police at his home and landed juicy SAPS contracts for his trouble, is now respectable enough to be employer of choice for the rugby coach of last year's World Cup winning Springboks? And that this shady fellow somehow enjoys sufficient standing to have the Official Opposition accept his donation of a Mercedes Benz - used as personal transport by former DA leader Tony Leon - with no questions asked?.
Is Jake White another dumb sports personality caught out by a miscreant prepared to buy his fame and through it respectability? Is Leon just another tainted politician? Or are White and Leon simply members of a nation that has lost its moral compass?
Worse, we seem to have sunk so low that we have stopped asking difficult questions of suddenly prosperous members of our society. When misgivings are occasionally raised by the media, we generally discount them as biased reporting. Could it be because our attitudes are shaped by not actually wanting to discover the real way these latter day Neros accumulated their money?
Varejes, by the way, is also a proud partner of the Levy brothers, the faces behind one of the most hyped-up new of the JSE's listings of the past decade, a R5bn company called Blue Label Telecoms. It's a business which also embraces a smattering of personalities closely associated with that other paragon of business virtue, the now deceased formerly JSE-listed CorpCapital.
And while we're on the subject of recent JSE listings, another business personality who features among the Selebi bribees is one James Murray - he who twice listed companies on the JSE and then sold them on (TCO Holdings to DiData in the 1990s; and in 2005 Xantium, now Simeka BSG). Murray seems to have the same modus operandi as Varejes: find a crooked public servant and promise them a cut of any contract they manage to push your way. Keeping the lion's share of the profits, naturally, for yourself.
As a matter of interest, Mr Zuma, while you're pointing SARS Commissioner Pravin Gordhan towards the source of Tony Leon's Mercedes and Jake White's new employment contract, perhaps you should also invite your old ANC colleague Popo Molefe around for a chat. He was Murray's partner at Xantium and still chairs the company it is now morphed into. Popo has also been raking in cash through mining deals where the ability to, erm, influence State officials is a decided advantage.
Back to the canary called Agliotti. It took a steel stomach to hold down my supper after reading he and his pal Clint Nassif callously arranged to gun down a good friend of mine. We all need something personal to motivate us. You have ten years on Robben Island. This attempted assassination is one of mine.
My friend is among the brightest, most honest and talented people I have met. He was also the custodian of millions of ordinary South Africans' retirement funds, and his brilliance as a money manager ensured their money grew well beyond what they might have expected.
Every Wednesday evening he would appear, without payment, on my radio show, freely sharing his priceless ideas and insights with the nation. He would generally wait in his Cape Town office until the interview was over and then drive home to Constantia.
One Wednesday night when he arrived home after doing his bit on the radio show, my friend, Stephen Mildenhall, was shot numerous times in his driveway. For months I fretted, as one does, that had he not been delayed by my programme, the tragedy would have been avoided.
Stephen survived the shooting. But he was not the same. A confident, forceful and productive citizen became introspective and quiet. He never again agreed to a radio interview. A few months ago he finally threw in the towel on our country, packed up his family, resigned his job as the chief investment officer of the country's most admired asset manager (Allan Gray) and headed overseas.
For the first time we now know the truth behind Stephen's near-assassination.
Glenn Agliotti states matter-of-factly in his affidavit that my friend was shot because he dared question the way that the king of crooks and profligate funder of politicians, Brett Kebble, was managing a JSE-listed company called JCI.
Stephen, as the representative of shareholders who owned 25% of JCI, was determined to have the company properly investigated. So Kebble and his still at-large Australian cohort John Stratton, simply arranged to have Mr Mildenhall bumped off.
The Selebi-run SAPS, of course, never even got close to finding a suspect after the shooting. Even though it was in a fairly remote, upmarket suburb where gangsters stick out like sore thumbs. But then Selebi and slime ball Kebble were "friends". Much like Selebi's other trusted pals Varejes, Murray and by his own public admission, your predecessor as ANC President, Thabo Mbeki.
I lived for many years in Mondeor, one of the working class southern suburbs of Johannesburg. It's a place where residents pride themselves on being in touch with the real world. Much like the folk you are comfortable being around when at home in Nkandla.
These are people who prefer cash to credit, put a premium on family and take their relaxation close to home. The kind that crefates the bedrock of a middle class upon which sustainable societies are built.
They speak plainly down South. Among their favourite sayings is "lie down with dogs and you'll catch fleas."
What should bother both of us right now is that many of our colleagues and associates - yours in politics, mine in business - have been bitten by so many fleas that they've lost their sense of reality. Money has become their new God. How it was made means little. That you possess the lucre is all that matters.
I asked a golfing buddy why he maintains business relationships with one of the dogs exposed by the Agliotti's disclosures. He has always found him "honourable", he told me. And no, he hadn't bothered to read the Agliotti affidavits because "he's a crook and you can't believe a word he says." Besides, he added, you never drop a "friend" when his back is up against the wall.
Some other business acquaintances are less sanguine. This is Africa, they retort. Get used to it. Like Naspers' decision to print propaganda for Robert Mugabe, they are the faceless shadows who, until caught out, hide behind the claim that all business is good business. No matter what its source.
Why, Mr Zuma, should Africa equal corruption? Surely we are defeated only when we accept this, when we "get used to it". I will not. And it is my fervent hope, Mr Zuma, that neither will you.
Americans lived through similar experiences when Al Capone and other gangsters ran their cities during the 1920s and 1930s. You might have seen the movie about the special unit called the "Untouchables" whose courage brought down the Selebis, Kebbles, Varejes and Murrays of that time.
We used to have the Scorpions. But you know all about that. And have sided with those who called for our "Untouchables" to be closed down.
But as the nation discovers the full disgusting details of Selebi the crooked cop during the court action which starts on Thursday, they will know some of the truth. And realise that were it not for the Scorpions and the courage of their head Vusi Pikoli, a super gangster would still be secure at the top of the SAPS.
With Selebi untouched, what hope might we then have had to reverse our national 90% corruption rating?
Winston Churchill said a fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. You have made a big impression on the legitimate business community in your interactions by steering away from fanaticism. Your modesty, humility and desire to listen and learn have worked better than any charm offensive.
Many business leaders are even allowing themselves to believe your supporters who preach you will be the best thing to happen to this country since Madiba. Indeed, there are many who describe you today as a "mini Mandela" in waiting.
It would be best not to disappoint them. So isn't it time to take the tough decisions? To stop deferring to protocol and actually do something about replacing your discredited predecessor? And show through your actions that the Selebis, Mugabes and other blights on humanity have no home in the South Africa of tomorrow?
Waiting in hope.
Alec Hogg
Alec Hogg is Moneyweb's editor in chief; he presents SAFM Market Update with Moneyweb weeknights from 6pm to 6:30pm (FM nationwide 104 to 107)
0 comments:
Post a Comment