*The Minister of Public Enterprises*
*Mr. Pravin Gordhan*

*Sir*

*Are you listening to what ordinary South Africans are thinking and saying - Act in the interest of the country and not your party - PLEASE ?*

When Abraham Lincoln famously observed, *"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all the people all of the time"*, he may very well have been speaking about present day South Africa and the current crop of ANC governors, yourself included.

Let us for a moment forget about the big boast of how the ANC was responsible for the freedom and "democracy"(you will admit that we are NOT a democratic country) that we all enjoy - freedom and democracy under the veil of fear, poverty, unemployment, corruption, thuggery, ineptitude - the list goes on and on.

The "struggle" as it was known, was a phase that was necessary at the time, the likes of which many other countries have undergone in their own metamorphosis for a changing of the guard, and it was needed to replace a form of heinous and intolerable tyranny in South Africa.

What have we replaced such tyranny with?

"A better life for all"? - "A new dawn"? - "RDP"? - "GEAR"? - "BBEEE"? - or perhaps is it the evidentiary gratuitous and unbridled corruption that we have experienced since 1994, only and only to the advantage of the chosen elite, the well-connected and the thugs who are so ably aided and abetted by a government, who lack the genuine will and spirit to act against same?

The majority of South Africans wither in poverty and unemployment, resorting to crime in some cases to eke out a living - of course, crime is also big business in our country, fomented by the lack of capability by your government to rein in the devastating causes and effects of such a malady.

Eskom, our power utility, under your watch, is a patent disgrace, a laughable embarrassment and a pathetic indictment for which you shoulder much responsibility.

As the overseeing minister for the debacle that is Eskom, I personally once harboured great hopes that you, upon your appointment, would have been able to rid the rot as it were, and ensure that we are not plagued by the desperate situation that all South Africans are facing as a result.

If we are losing over a R1 billion rand per day as a result of the dreaded loadshedding, we are then becoming a poorer country each day.

A declining GDP, servicing the interest alone on foreign debt to the tune of over 80%, and most other state-owned enterprises being in crises themselves, we are hurtling headlong into the deepening abyss.

When you were the Finance Minister, you gave us hope - but your counterpart in the same portfolio currently, Mr.Enoch Gondongwana, in his Budget Speech, which, in my candid opinion, was nothing more than a preamble to the ANC election campaign for 2024, served up nothing worthy to shout about.

Giving a few bob extra in social grants to the ever-increasing demand by those becoming dependent on the state is not helpful - hurting the fiscus in the long term when the likes of Eskom need urgent repair and reconstruction, and in itself costing the people billions due to wilful corruption and mismanagement.

The allegations of fraud and corruption at Eskom by its former CEO, Andre de Ruyter, will fall on your shoulders as the head honcho - and I appeal to you not to play spin doctor and diminish the alleged thuggery within your ministry and the questionable underlings you command.

Prove to South Africa that we have at least one minister who has a pelvic girdle that houses the testicular fortitude to take on the miscreants who are causing the country so much pain and suffering - so much heartache and loss - and indeed, leading us to impending doom.

My suspicion is that you may well be out of government after the next election, but do the right thing as a parting legacy alone that even you can be proud of, if nothing else.

 

Narendh Ganesh

Global Indian Correspondent – South Africa

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