Cosatu on Gautrain allegations 26- 11 - 06

COSATU statement on the allegations that two ministers stand to benefit from the Bombela consortium that won the Gautrain tender

The Congress of South African Trade Unions is outraged at the allegations in the Sunday Times that Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula, Education Minister Naledi Pandor, Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge and National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete, and a long list of ANC officials, hold shares in Bombela consortium which is building and operating the Gautrain.

The Sunday Times claims that "Mapisa-Nqakula and Mbete have shares in Dyambu Holdings, while Pandor is involved in Black Management Forum Investments (BMFI). Both companies and 11 others have a 25% stake - worth R5-billion - in Gautrain through Strategic Partners Group, which is the empowerment partner in Bombela."

Unless the comrades concerned refute these allegations, COSATU will view this as the weekly dosage we keep on reading underlining the crass materialism that seemingly is on the rampage. COSATU, and our icons Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu as well as President Thabo Mbeki, have repeatedly complained against this syndrome.

The question we have asked over and over again is why public representatives, who are very well paid, see it fit to involve themselves in all manner of get-rich-quick narrow BEE schemes?

Greed and selfishness have clearly overtaken the culture of service for our people. This trend reflects peer pressure to which our leaders subject one another. Competition is no longer around willingness to serve the people or the humility and dignity that we learnt from Walter Sisulu and others.

Instead, a "mine is bigger than yours" mentality now rules - how big is your house or 4X4, where you went on holiday, how expensive is your children's private school, and so on. Too many of our leaders seek to live even beyond the plush salaries they earn as public representatives.

We reiterate the call that public representatives must choose between a career of serving the people and or business career. As the COSATU General Secretary has often pointed out, you cannot serve both the lion and the lamb at the same time in the same kraal. You cannot be a leader of workers or a representative of the people at the same time as being a capitalist - these roles are inherently contradictory.

If they Sunday Times allegations are true, they powerfully reinforce the belief expressed in COSATU's recent Congress that worryingly growing number of ANC and government leaders are in the grip of a culture of personal self-enrichment. Far too many have crossed the line in the class struggle, abandoned the workers and the poor and embarked on a career to line their pockets. It is not surprising that the policies they back serve to reinforce capital's domination of the economy. They have long abandoned the NDR that seeks to tilt the balance in favour of the working class for they are now capitalists themselves.