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New elite is emerging, say researchers
JOHANNESBURG – About 100 people form the core of South Africa’s new elite network which combines economic and political leverage, said the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) on Friday.
“It should be wider, it should not exclude and it’s an interesting group to monitor,” said IJR director Dr Charles Villa-Vicencio.
Villa-Vicencio said all societies had such groups and these were not in themselves problematic. However the new South African elite was perceived as closed, leading to anger by those who had expected to benefit from democracy but were still excluded.
“If there is a growing economy largely within this connected group that does not allow anyone else in, then of course they are going to get richer and there is going to be growing discontent.”
Villa-Vicencio was speaking in Johannesburg at the release of the IJR’s 2006 transformation audit, title “Money and morality”.
The list of 118 includes politicians, their spouses, ambassadors, senior civil servants and business people.
On the list are: politicians President Thabo Mbeki, who is not listed as having business connections, former deputy president Jacob Zuma, and ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula; former premiers-turned-business executives Manne Dipico, Tokyo Sexwale, Popo Molefe and Mathews Phosa; current or former civil servants such as Director-General in the Presidency Frank Chikane, former CE of SA Tourism Cheryl Carolus, Mbeki’s political advisor Titus Mafolo, and foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa.
Former politicians turned businessmen Popo Molefe and Chris Nissen and businessman Sharif Pandor, married to Education Minister Naledi Pandor, are listed as recipients of loans or payments from Brett Kebble.
MPs Mbulelo Goniwe and Ngoako Ramathlodi and Deputy Minister of Safety and Security Susan Shabangu are listed, with a note of business interests, some possibly dormant, which they allegedly did not disclose in the parliamentary register.
The individuals were identified through their personal and institutional connectedness and influence.
“All social systems operate through networks of social capital -- the links, loyalties and human connections that motivate and advance people,” said the report.
While the IJR report raises concerns about widespread corruption, Villa-Vicencio emphasised that the people listed were not being identified as corrupt.
Editor of the report Susan Brown said that when such a network started to work against the interests of the citizenry in general, then corruption started to emerge.
The IJR said it was difficult to tell where “moral elasticity” crossed the line and became corruption, and that the country needed constant reminders by people such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu to beware of corruption.
Brown said that while black economic empowerment (BEE) policies helped some sub-contractors, it was difficult to quantify the success of this spillover. “But thus far in terms of the number of enterprises established it doesn’t look that good.”
She said the link between corruption and connectivity arose when businesses used only the same prominent individuals every time to get BEE contracts, either because they regarded those individuals as being the most useful or because they simply used the same people repeatedly out of habit.
She said this also drew resentment from those left out.
Sapa
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