Out Damned Spot.

I have had my share of dealing with large government tenders.  It is a hell of a process and it would, in my experience, require an enormous amount of collusion to get round or to manipulate in favour of one or other particular company.  That it can happen, and does happen, is undeniable.  But what is clear from the recent price fixing revelations of the major construction firms involved in the bids for the 2010 soccer infrastructure tenders, is that they recognised this – and sought a more reliable and more effective way of beating the system.  Price-fixing only requires the collusion of others who stand to benefit in the industry – not rogue government officials.  That is why it is, generally, such a reliable mechanism for corruption.

I once, in casual discussion with a relative of mine who was high up in the business stratosphere, asked him why it was, in his opinion, that I had never been asked by anyone to manipulate a tender. In all the years I have worked in government, I have never been approached by anyone in business, to do anything. I found this strange, because frankly, in some of the large tenders I have handled, I had been expecting it.  But nothing! Not a knock on a door.  Not the offer of a holiday in France. No cars, no shopping vouchers, no houses, no expensive suits, no Rolex watches. Every year, I have filled in my disclosure of interest forms, disclosing the paltry fact that I own one serious debt - my house, and nothing else. No shares, no gratuities, no gifts over R300. I am director of no companies.  It is a fairly depressing disclosure, to be sure.

My relative looked at me amused – (actually it was worse.  He looked at me as though he had suddenly come to understand just how stupid I really am).  “Michael”, he said wearily, “do you not know that in every serious business, there is a whole unit which is dedicated to profiling people like you.  They will have done a detailed scan on you and come up with the fact that you would probably have too many difficulties with an offer.  So they look for other more likely candidates”. I was scandalised.  His quizzical look turned to unabashed pity (verging on disdain) at my naivety.

So, “corruption” is very much a word bandied about today, as if the ANC has invented it.  But if we are in the least bit honest, we will admit that corruption is much bigger, much deeper, much wider, much more endemic to our society than being simply an ANC or government problem. To characterize it as such is really not to understand the nature of the problem. It is a problem which reaches back far into the country's nationalist part, where corruption was pervasive, state enabled and unchallenged. Those same nationalist politicians, in close alliance with big business and multinational companies, simply carried over their corrupt practices, virtually unchanged, into the democratic era -  but now enabled, where it has succeeded, by black and government (by which I mean the whole span of government, from ANC to DA) support, either explicit or implicit.

I have certainly had personal experience of less than savoury demands made by non- ANC politicians, who happened to be my political heads at the time. On the scale of things, the demands made on me were minuscule and did not succeed, because of the tight prescripts of the Public Service Management Act.  On the other hand (and let me say this clearly) in all my years of government, I have never had any similar demands made on me by ANC politicians, nor have I witnessed anything personally, amongst the senior officials I have worked with which could be termed corrupt behavior. I am merely making the point that the ANC does not own the sole rights to corruption, nor is it the only party which can be corrupt.  Nor would I want to ignore blatent cases of corruption where the ANC is involved.

I agree completely with the assertion that corruption is key to the attainment of justice in our society, but I would urge that we don't get sucked into the easy and comfortable analysis that this is merely an ANC problem. Get rid of the ANC, I sometimes hear, and corruption will miraculously vanish, day will dawn, birds will sing overhead, rainbows will form in the sky.  I don’t think so.  The ANC has no monopoly on corruption in our society.

Clearly, yes, it is a government problem, but it is also very obviously a private sector problem as well. And even more than that, it is a problem which involves every citizen. It involves every one of us when we pay a bribe, because we are in a hurry. It involves us when we grease a deal. It involves us when we make a call to a friend or relative in a government department, who can fast-track a decision, or tweak an employment process. It is about feeding the demand.  These are the ways in which corruption is fed and sustained. 

Corruption is a state of the collective mind.  It cannot happen in insolation.  It requires two to tango. It cannot happen only somewhere else – with others – over there somewhere.  If you think about it, hard enough, you will likely start to see how uncomfortably close a thing it is, to all of us. And if we do that, and if we are honest, perhaps that might be the beginning of the end.

The Third Reich and the 2010 FIFA World Cup

The other day, I was asked to do a presentation to the Western Cape Provincial Museum’s services, on how we have achieved legacy from the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It was in Stellenbosch. I battled to find the venue, which was part of the Stellenbosch Museum. And the reason I battled to find it, I discovered later, was that the sign had fallen down, and no-one had bothered to put it up again!

I thought I was pretty much on time – but discovered that the speaker before me was still in full flight, giving a talk on the way in which the Nazi’s had tried to use the 1936 Olympics to benefit Hitler and the Reich. It was sobering stuff indeed!

The presenter was illustrating her talk with various athletes, who had been sidelined or excluded, either because they were not Aryan enough, or because they were too dark. She spoke of a contestant from the United States, Jesse Owens, who was (what would now be called) African-American. He won four gold medals and became a nightmare for the Nazis, because he was besieged by autograph hunters and was cheered every time he entered the stadium. Rather than acknowledge him, as he had done for all other athletes, Hitler chose to leave the stadium early.

She told the story of Jewish athletes who were excluded from participation. She spoke of one young Jewish athlete, Helene Mayer, who was used for publicity (unbeknown to her) and because of extreme pressure from the USA on the Reich to include Jewish athletes in the German team. She was used as a kind of window-dressing. She was chosen, because she was “half Aryan” – and generally had physical features which the Nazis found vaguely acceptable. And so pleased was she to have been included in the German team, that, like everyone else, there she was lifting her arm in the Nazi salute.

The presenter spoke of how Berlin was “sanitized” before the games. How vagrants, the indigent, street people, the poor – were all gathered together and moved out of Berlin. What was presented to the world was life under the Reich as being something very close to paradise.

I could not help looking for parallels with what it is we are doing here. Every so often, one hears of plans to take street-people beggars and street-children elsewhere, so that the visitors from elsewhere will not be unduly bothered by them. I do not know of any actual plans to do that, I have to say. But the rumours persist.

And so, at the last Technical Steering Committee for the Province, I made the following suggestion: I said, in the light of the kind of Constitution we enjoy, and the kind of rights every citizen in this country holds under it, I would propose that we enable this category of citizen - the street-people, the homeless, the street-children - with a chance to “Touch the World Cup”. Because, it will be things like that – tokenistic though they may be, which will distinguish us, in the end from the kind of event which was held in 1936.

There is, at this moment, a “tour” beginning of the actual World Cup. It is made, I hear, of 18 carat gold. It has its own security crew. It travels the world under high security and individuals are allowed to be photographed next to it. It will be in Cape Town in a few days time. And the poor will love it and be pleased to be photographed next to it. It is Sepp Blatter’s “Let them eat cake!”

I want just one occasion, when they are not used for any other purpose, other than for them to be recognised as the people that they are. Just one occasion, amidst the hype and the money and the glitz and the show. And I want the Ambassadors of the participating countries to be there when they are.

The Final Draw - Cairp Tahn goes soccer crazy

Long Street, in Cairp Tahn is normally a fairly quaint, very ordinary kind of street. It has lots of restaurants in it - some of which are rather questionable. But at night, Long Street is "The" place to be for the younger set. Awash, I suppose, with the normal kind of recreational drugs - I don't know this, I assume it. Parking is quite impossible to find and the blare of music of various genres assaults you at every turn.

The crowd is not really trendy - it is somewhat more downmarket. There is a lot of smoking of cigarrettes and a lot of wearing sunglasses at night. It seems quite a happy place, but one would be slightly concerned about one's teenage son or daughter.

When Long street is not pumping with the close to 17 000 people it gets on a Saturday night, it is just like anywhere else in Cairp Tahn. Enjoyable. Unreconstructed. Fairly laid back.

Long Street today, however, is the site of the Final Draw (for the 2010 FIFA World Cup - in case you live on a different planet) party. 75 000 people are expected. Screens have been erected, to ensure that people can watch which teams are drawn against which teams. The cordon of security around the International Convention Centre - which is where the draw will actually take place, is vice-like. I virtually had to give a DNA sample to get accreditation for this evenings event. Not that I will be going to the actual event, you understand - that is reserved for Kings, Presidents, Joseph Sepp Blatter, visitors from Mars. (Queens don't qualify).

So, "the people" will be revelling, blowing Vuvuzelas, singing, dancing and wearing soccer jerseys, until the early hours of the morning, in Long Street. I heard on various radio stations that everyone is duly excited. Even the stations which mostly white people listen to. This is unusual. Because white people in South Africa, mostly, do not have any clue about soccer. And white people in South Africa, mostly, can only see doom and gloom. To see white Capetonians wandering around in soccer jerseys, I want to tell you, is a fairly amazing sight.

So, this really is a moment for national unity. This really is a time to shine. And we will. Of that I have no doubt. I have no doubt at all.

One small point though - the three random young women in the photograph asked me, as soon as I had taken it - whether I had accommodation for 2010. Perhaps the sudden soccer enthusiasm may have been tinged with just a touch of lip-smacking at the wonderful prospect of easy money next year. Maybe. Just maybe.