Bryan Britton
Retired as a Financial Executive in 2005 and turned to writing to express his concerns over the decline in morality in post Mandela South Africa. If not checked South Africa will slide into the morass of failed states that typifies post-colonial Africa.
In 2007 he commenced writing a book called ‘Stepping Stones’ which was published by Xlibris in the United States of America in 2012.
Copyright © 2012 by Bryan Britton.
ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4797-4728-3
E-book 978-1-4797-4729-0
To order:
Xlibris Corporation
0-800-644-6988
www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk
The reason for writing the book was twofold. Firstly, it aimed to highlight the ineptitude of the African National Congress in South Africa and the likelihood of that former liberation movement, now government, descending into a typical African kleptocracy.
Secondly, it aimed to bring to the South African voters’ attention the need to educate the young South African population and the existence of political mischief aimed at frustrating that critical endeavour.
Two extracts from ‘Stepping Stones’ are reproduced below in order to give the reader a measure of how far South Africa has strayed since 2007.
……’this is the challenge that faces all South Africans today, and is one to which I am certain we will all arise” – Nelson Mandela 1994
Hear, hear!! So how are we doing in 2010?
To get a snapshot of our position in 2010 I have relied almost solely on information contained in the March 2008 edition of Leadership magazine, edition 280. In particular I quote directly from an article by the leading scenario planner in the land, Clem Sunter.
“However, as the saying goes, the honeymoon is now over. Staying in the premier league is proving increasingly challenging for South Africa. It demands a more vigorous implementation of the attributes of a winning nation. Greater efficiency in terms of government delivery is key; as well as a dramatic reduction in crime, especially the threat to personal security and private property. Moreover, transformation of the health system and education system is needed. The reality is that other countries have stepped up to the plate in the global game, accepted the conditions and challenges, and are outperforming South Africa. Amongst these are Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as developing nations such as China, Russia, India and the Slovak Republic. They have all closed the gap on the US. In fact, South Africa is now facing relegation, having lost ground to the US along with Indonesia, France, Italy, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. The proof is forthcoming in three reports released recently that have logged South Africa’s decline:
1. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitive Index shows a fall for South Africa from thirty-sixth position in 2006 to forty-fourth position in 2007.
2. In the World Bank’s Doing Business in 2008 survey of ease-of-doing business rankings South Africa has slipped from twenty-ninth position to thirty-fifth. This is the first time the country has fallen out of the Top 30 since the survey began five years ago.
3. The International Institute of Management Development’s Competitiveness Yearbook for 2007 highlights South Africa’s 12-place fall from grace. It has descended from thirty-eighth to fiftieth position in a ranking of 55 countries.
Sunter lists 11 uncertainties which could determine the possible outcomes for the country in the 2010s. To paraphrase Sunter these are:
1. Whether South Africa can retain its competitiveness in the global game.
2. Whether we continue to be a generally peaceful society.
3. Whether the Constitution remains sacrosanct and the independence of the media and judiciary remains intact.
4. Whether the land issue can be resolved peacefully.
5. Whether the current electricity and infrastructural problems can be resolved.
6. Whether HIV/Aids can be eradicated.
7. Whether violent crime can be reduced to an acceptable level.
8. Whether the quality of education can be improved.
9. Whether the skills shortage can be overcome.
10. Whether the Zimbabwe debacle can be resolved.
11. Whether South Africa can balance diplomatically between East and West”.
Sunter further says that the aforementioned key uncertainties make it difficult to remain globally competitive, given the uncertainty of internal division.
The report card, since Mr Mandela’s inauguration 16 years ago, is abysmal. Despite favourable worldwide economic conditions throughout this period and vastly improved collections by the Fiscus (through more of the country’s emerging economically active population contributing) progress on the above key issues has at best been pedestrian, and at worst extremely regressive.
Our Government has been responsible for a litany of corrupt, self-serving and dubious decisions including the Travel Scandal, the HIV/Aids Debacle, the Arms Deal cover up and the cover up of the Police Commissioner’s shady dealings. Silent support of a neighbouring tyrant, with the blood of his opponents still on his hands, and turning of a blind eye to the illegal immigration problem are further instances of poor governance. However, the soaring incidence of crime and corruption, which takes its lead from Parliament and infiltrates South African society as an evil and arrogant entitlement, is by far the most serious complaint against the ANC government.
All the while, the silent voters of South Africa have patiently and respectfully continued to wait for the better life that they were promised 16 long years ago.
The audit trail also reveals crime, fraud and corruption amongst the new officers in national and provincial spheres of government and serious insolvency and bankruptcy in local government spheres. The legal system, as a result, is creaking under the strain of trying to maintain justice. A Constitutional Court aspirant is currently under suspicion of favouring a political contender and of accepting pecuniary inducement to favour a commercial enterprise. The jury is still out on this one but the last bastion of democracy, fair play and ‘good’ is about to be subverted. Watch this space.
In this regard, the moral stalwarts of the struggle, Madiba and Tutu, must be cringing at the behaviour of some of their fellow countrymen. The newly appointed group of leaders are not listening to their moral mentors, and should be setting a moral example for the youth of South Africa.
These are the challenges that you young Democrats, of whatever colour and persuasion, face in the not so new South Africa. Your challenge is not only to become productive taxpayers, but also to ensure that state funds are honestly allocated and used for upliftment of the poor, support of the infirm and aged, creation of self-sufficiency in the country, creation of a stable business environment honest administration and so on. In pursuit of these moral objectives the perpetrators of elitism, sloth, greed and the rest of that ugly family of vices, should be rooted out, and voted out.
Icons of the struggle on the African continent against colonialism, racism, white domination and cultural oppression are to be admired and revered-and then committed to history. Their victories have been celebrated. The freedom that some died for has been attained. Now the surviving heroes must graciously bow out and hand over the spoils of war to the communities that they served.
They did not suffer for their own glorification and edification.
They fought so that their sons and daughters could grow up in a non-racial, democratic environment which would ensure a new and economically viable South Africa within Africa and the world.
The history of Africa shows that when the oppressor leaves, he is replaced by an even greater oppressor. In South Africa, colonialism was replaced by apartheid, which has been replaced by African nationalism. Sadly, African nationalism does not mean devolution of power to the lowest common denominator, you the voting South African citizen. African nationalism has shown itself in other African countries to be the worst of the previous white regimes, merely dressed in an elite black face. Our closest neighbour boasts a narrow, super-rich, black class that, whilst blaming former white regimes, has plundered the coffers of the country to leave the once rich and fertile country of Zimbabwe starving, bankrupt and bereft of hope.
Before our all partying, all singing, all dancing former struggle heroes, now elite black rulers, bask too long in the sun with their snouts in the trough, you ordinary voting citizens of South Africa should point north and remind them of Africa’s shameful record of black on black oppression.
Remind them, instead of swapping war stories at the country club over claret and grilled partridge wings, to enjoin the new struggle against African elitism, against illiteracy, disease, ignorance, starvation, corruption and the moral decline amongst the youth of this country.
If they do not, the next oppressor may well be from Beijing’.
..........Chapter on Kleptocracy
‘It is regarded as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In the past number of years, the leaders of this country have stolen more than two and a half trillion rand. The average citizen, on the other hand, today only receives about R100 in income per week.
Recently, administration has been making concerted efforts to tackle corruption. Ministers have been dismissed and the government is committed to change. The money is being ring-fenced to tackle poverty and this spending is very closely monitored. The government has committed that the money should go to the very poorest. The country, with the most dangerous slums in Africa, is seen as having the greatest natural resources on the continent. It is also the one with the highest potential for development.
One can be excused for thinking that we are talking here about South Africa.
The country in question is, of course, Nigeria. South Africa has yet to go through the quagmire that is Nigeria’s recent history; a history of untold shame, sorrow and suffering-all at the hands of the kleptocrats.
Kleptocracy derives from the Greek words kleptes, meaning ‘thief’, and kratos, meaning ‘rule’. It is a word used to describe a government widely engaged in corruption to extend the personal wealth and political power of individuals in the ruling class.
A corrupt and dishonest government, characterised by greed, is described as kleptocratic. Such a government is typically run by rulers who are thieves and who pillage public funds to the detriment of the poor, sometimes without the pretence of offering any form of honest public service. These kleptocrats then exploit a country’s natural resources for their own greedy benefit.
The money on which these evil managers of men prey is almost always funds earmarked for the building of public amenities, schools, hospitals, roads, parks and public facilities. Thus the ordinary citizen is prejudiced, inconvenienced and deprived by these selfish kleptocrats.
The term ‘kleptocrat’ was first used in the 1960s to describe the activities of the ruler of the independent Congo, Colonel Joseph Mobutu, who plundered the rich natural resources of that country for his personal benefit. However, the term could equally have applied to his colonial predecessor, King Leopold II of Belgium. It is said that the megacity of Brussels, a European Union bastion, was built with the kleptocratic proceeds of the resources of the Congo Basin.
The story of Africa is one of the Europeans plundering the natural resources of the continent and then, when caught with their hands in the cookie jar, hastily effecting a democratic handover to the most likely African kleptocrat.
This book has urged you young South Africans to develop your own sense of right and wrong, your own morality, your own ethics and your own zone of indifference. This is in the absence of a reliable schooling and education system. It is a ploy of all kleptocrats known to man, to restrain the emerging youth from education, thus guaranteeing for themselves a strata of humanity upon which to prey. Be warned. Be alert. Be careful. Be your own person and be democratic. It has taken Nigeria 40 years to learn this painful lesson’.