Who are the real looters?

Having witnessed probably the worst outbreak of civil unrest since the dawn of democracy, one difficult question needs to be answered. Who are the real looters?

What took place last week was pillaging in its crudest form. Such plunder has been experienced in many countries around the word, recently in the United States and right now, in both Cuba and Swaziland. Looting and plundering in its crudest form seems to be the knee-jerk reaction of the oppressed and disadvantaged. Sadly, in the case of South Africa, the damage was enormous.

It seems, according to some analysis, that looters didn’t attack and wantonly destroy much infrastructure. In the main, they looted, stole what they could get their hands on, and fled with their spoils. The jury is still out on that. The question remains who the real looters are – not those crude thieves with that 52-inch flat screen TV or trolley full of food.

The real looters are far more sophisticated. While the crude looting took place over only a few days, the sophisticated ransacking has taken place over many, many years, and probably continues today.

Anyone listening to the evidence presented before the Zondo Commission these past two years could name tens if not hundreds of politicians, director generals, public servants, municipal leaders, executives, and managers of state-owned entities, as well as leaders in private business who plundered the country with such efficient sophistication, it would make the Wolf of Wall Street look like an amateur. Paul Holden, who runs the non-governmental organisation Shadow World Investigations has traced more than R50 billion plundered from the state thus far but says the true cost could be substantially higher.

Finger pointing by some “honest” ruling party leaders is really part of the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) internal factional conflict. Does anyone really believe that only one faction is complicit in corruption?

The plunder happened under the watch of the current leadership. Only days after the COVID-19 pandemic was recognised as a national emergency, a host of “shady” PPE (personal protective equipment) tenders were awarded to the strangest of people, and who can ignore the very recent issue of a sitting health minister fingered for questionable deals?

The façade of respectability by the “connected and influential” is starting to wear thin. Even the masses are starting to question the ANC.