Hello and welcome! This little column presents news and politics at its most absurd. SAtired supports freedom of speech, small government and free markets. This means we’re centrists. This is NOT a safe space!
The Squib*
- squib /skwɪb/ noun: squib 1. a small firework that issues a hissing sound before exploding into a short piece of satirical writing.
Enoch of this!
Enoch Godongwana was anointed finance minister by the president this week. One version of his appointment was that former finance minister, Tito Mboweni, was “constructively dismissed” by resigning reluctantly at the behest of Cyril.
And Cyril wasn’t a particularly willing dismisser. He did it because of unrelenting pressure from the Communist Party and Cosatu over his perceived ‘austerity’ program, and, ……wait for it……over his opposition to increasing the public wage bill.
So apparently Cyril caved to the communists, when Tito didn’t want to leave and Enoch was only ‘half interested’ in the job.
Enoch’s appointment is a tell-tale sign that this ‘reshuffle” was to shore up Cyril’s position and not to improve the lives of South Africans.
Enoch is capable but he’s not a reformer. He authoured the Economic Recovery Plan, which hasl not seen any recovery. And with Enoch in charge of finance, we can expect a slide to the left, where there will be no economic recovery at all.
In the Sunday Times (8 August 2021) Enoch says ‘“We can’t condemn young people to a cycle of dependence, particularly because these are young black kids.”
Godongwana said he believes the current approach to the BIG creates dependency and does not address fundamental issues affecting youth unemployment. Then he fell it necessary to add:
“That’s my version, and not your white liberals who think that every kid or black person must be kept in perpetual dependence through grants”.’
Does anyone here know of a white person who believes this? A bit of racism sprinkled with a soupçon of slander.
And there is the issue from 2011 of the disappearance of millions of rands of union members’ retirement money, which Enoch insisted he did not know that a company he co-owned, borrowed R93-million from clothing factory workers’ provident funds.
But Enoch’s family had a 50% stake in the company, Canyon Springs Investments 12 owned by family trust, Thandiwe and that he was its chair at the time of some of the loans. The loans were made in terms of an oral agreement.
In addition, papers submitted in court show that his name appeared on stationery as the company’s chair between August 2008 and March 2009, when the company received R19.8-million that came from workers’ provident funds.
In June 2011 Canyon Springs was placed under provisional liquidation by Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe in the Cape High Court. This raised concerns about how much of the pension would be recovered.
It was estimated that R420-million from five provident funds in the clothing and textile industry may have disappeared in various failed investments, potentially affecting the retirement benefits of more than 20 000 workers.
Enoch allegedly misled the Canyon Springs insolvency inquiry while giving evidence in 2011 when he failed to disclose that he had received money from companies belonging to Richard Kawie. Kawie was charged with fraud in the scandal over the misappropriation of clothing factory workers’ pension fund cash.
The loan originated from a company called Trilinear Capital, which at the time managed five provident funds for Sactwu members.
The loan was made on the basis of an oral agreement!
Apparently Godongwana was found to have been paid R1.5m by Canyon Springs over a period of two years, but was cleared by criminal and liquidation inquiries. In 2017 he reached a settlement with the union and paid back the R1.5m. Why? Why should he pay back his Canyon Springs salary to the union? Surely it had nothing to do with the union?
‘I took the job aware that people would dig the dirt to argue that I’m not fit for office. I did the honourable thing at the time and resigned from the government, not because I was guilty [but] in order to protect the office. That’s what an ethical person does. I then went through the exercise of dealing with this matter, both from a criminal and civil perspective. On the basis of my submission on the criminal one there were no charges preferred.
‘On the civil matter there was no substantial evidence against me other than the fact that I also benefited in the form of a small amount, which I paid back.’
However, an article in News24 reports that Satawu told Fin24 that it reached an agreement with Godongwana in 2017, and that he paid back the amount required by the deal. [Ed – which was what exactly?]
The agreement (written this time!) stated that Gondongwana would fully repay the capital amount which he is liable for, plus interest. “He has fully honoured the terms of that settlement agreement,” said Kriel. He declined to say how much the new minister of finance had paid back.
He added that, in terms of to the agreement, Godongwana had also agreed to give evidence, if required, at the main trial of the key accused persons in the Canyon Springs case. Kriel noted that Godongwna was not among those facing criminal probes.
He had also been with the National Union of Metal Workers and its predecessor the Metal and Allied Workers Union from 1979 until 1997, and held positions on Cosatu, so he knew the union movement well. However, he ‘did not know’ where the money came from that the company he was involved with, was borrowing. The amount was R87 million, which would be equivalent to over R200m today. As IRR CEO Frans Cronjé observes, by 2012 the debt with interest would have been well over R100m.
Cronjé notes that the unions have an interest in letting him off now in exchange for him giving them a free pass on public wages and policy. If he refuses they could always dig up Canyon Springs again. ‘But the real issue here is that he is compromised and beholden to the left.’
Presumably Cyril does not see the probity, honesty and sensible free market reforms as desirable or necessary traits in finance minister. He is just part of the #CoverCyril’sA… campaign.
Oh, and advance the National Democratic Revolution while he’s at it!