{"id":1154,"date":"2015-10-02T12:01:50","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T10:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?p=1154"},"modified":"2020-03-20T12:03:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T10:03:50","slug":"there-can-be-no-capitalism-without-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?p=1154","title":{"rendered":"There Can be No Capitalism Without Corruption!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Regime Change! For System Change!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For a workers government on a socialist programme<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Nkandla, Guptagate, the arms deal, failed local government audits, fraudulent qualifications, the slanderous attacks on the Public Protector, cover-ups. A poisonous stench of corruption is now flowing out of every pore of the Zuma-led ANC administration that resembles a broken sewage system.\u00a0 Emboldened by his so far unsuccessful attempts to force him to pay back the Nkandla money or to have corruption charges against him reinstated, Zuma is pressing ahead with the nuclear power station build programme. This will open the sluice gates to corruption on an industrial scale that will make the arms deal corruption look like child\u2019s play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projected to cost at least R1\ntrillion (almost as much as the country\u2019s Gross Domestic Product, the total\nvalue of the all goods and service produced in the country annually) it is in\nthe opinion of most economists, including, even if he will not say it openly,\nFinance Minister Nhlanhla Nene himself,  completely unaffordable. In\npersisting with the nuclear power plan, Zuma has disregarded the advice of the\nNational Planning Commission \u2013 the authors of the neo-liberal economic\nprogramme that is supposed to develop the economy. He has ignored SA\u2019s economic\nrealities \u2013 the budget and current account deficits, the decline of the rand and\nthe slowing of economic growth to less than 2%. He has shown no interest\nwhatsoever in the environmental threat nuclear energy poses. A non-entity like\nMosebenzi Zwane is thus the perfect candidate for the Mineral Resources\nministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nkandla, the Guptas, and the\nnuclear build programme are not simply a grotesque reality show acted out by\nthe corrupt. Corruption affects the lives of the working class and the poor on\na daily basis as every aspect of service delivery is treated as an opportunity\nfor self-enrichment. As the Attorney General has found year after year, the\nmajority of councils are mismanaged resulting in billions lost. Only a minority\nget clean audits. It affects health, education and housing. In the most\nadvanced economy on the African continent, children drown in excrement in pit\ntoilets. The majority of working class schools do not have decent sanitary\nfacilities, libraries, or computer facilities. 500 000 children with\ndisabilities are excluded from the schooling system for lack of decent facilities\nto accommodate their needs. Thousands live in shacks without, electricity,\nwater or sanitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Private Sector Corruption<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corruption is not a government\nmonopoly. Corruption in the private sector is far greater. In fact it is as if\nthe Zuma government is determined to match the standards of corruption set by\nbig business. The Times reports that \u201cSouth Africa has \u2018the most corrupt\ncorporate class on earth according to the business consultancy Price Water\nHouse Coopers in February 2014. In the words of The Times, South\nAfrican management \u2018is the world leader in money-laundering, bribery\nand corruption, procurement fraud, asset misappropriation, and cybercrime\u2019,\nwith 77 percent of all internal fraud committed by senior and middle\nmanagement.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is estimated that that there\ncould be anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 government procurement centres\nwhere the collusion between government and business is located and where an\nestimated 42% of the state\u2019s budget for services is divided up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the scandal engulfing\nVolkswagen shows, which since 2009 manipulated on-board computers in over 11\nmillion vehicles to understate its pollution emission levels, corruption is\ncapitalism\u2019s lifeblood. A report tabled at the Pan African parliament reveals\nthat at least R500bn a year flows out of the African continent undetected\nthrough fraudulent schemes which enable multinational companies to rob some of\nAfrica\u2019s poorest countries of tax money, like transfer pricing, trade\nmisinvoicing and other acts of criminality. SA is one of the nations most\ndeeply affected by illicit outflows of capital, ranking third after Nigeria and\nEgypt in cumulative losses from 1970 to 2008. These ran to $81.8bn (R5.79\ntrillion), or 11.4% of Africa\u2019s total illicit financial flows, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Alternative Information\nDevelopment Agency\u2019s Dick Forslund found that Lonmin \u2013 centre of the strike\nthat culminated in the Marikana massacre \u2013 has for years engaged in elaborate\nschemes to understate profits and tax evasion to protect a wage gap that means\nit will take a platinum worker 300 year to earn what a CEO earns in one year.\nNothing demonstrates more clearly than the Marikana massacre that the ANC is an\nagent of the economic dictatorship of the capitalist class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The toothless Competition\nAuthorities, overwhelmed by private sector corruption, can secure the\nconviction of only a few by offering amnesty in exchange for giving evidence\nagainst each other. With companies budgeting for fines, there are no\nconsequences. Virtually all areas of the economy are soaked in corruption, with\nprice fixing in everything from bread to cement.  The bread producing\ncartel started its criminal manipulation of a staple of the working class and\nthe poor as far back as 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capitalist class saw\napartheid\u2019s end as no more than the exchange of one set of political managers\nfor another. Behind the mask of black majority rule and bourgeois parliamentary\ndemocracy they continued looting as they did under apartheid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ANC government\u2019s suicidal\nembrace of the neo-liberal economic policy GEAR in 1996 effectively converted\nthe country into a sub-continental bazaar \u2013 everything was for sale, exchange\ncontrols weakened, company taxes lowered, major JSE companies allowed to list\nabroad, and foreign investors allowed to buy stakes in the media, banks,\nmining, manufacturing and state-owned enterprises facilitating a massive\ntransfer of profits out of the country. It led to the virtual destruction of\nthe textile and clothing industry. Now the mining industry is in crisis and the\nmetal and engineering industry is on its knees with up to 190 000 jobs\nthreatened in the next 6 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SA is now the most unequal\nsociety on the planet, with 14m going hungry every night, 54% living in poverty\nand mass unemployment whose burden is crushing 60% of the youth. Just two\npeople \u2013 Nicky Oppenheimer and Johann Rupert \u2013 own as much wealth as the bottom\n50% of society. There can be no capitalism without corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This government must go with its\nmasters \u2013 the capitalist class. After two major splits \u2013 COPE and the EFF \u2013 the\nANC\u2019s divisions are deepening under Zuma with even his KZN power base now\nsplit. With the ANC only getting 36% of its vote in urban areas, and 12m\nstaying away from the 2014 polls, the ANC is in fact leading a minority\ngovernment. The resistance of poor communities, students and organised workers\nis determined but still separate. It cries out for unity. This march is an\nopportunity to assemble the forces for a mass workers party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitalism worldwide is headed\ntowards another crisis likely to be greater than that of 2008 \u2013 itself the\nworst since the 1930s\u2019 Great Depression. The only solution is the overthrow of\ncapitalism and the socialist transformation of society. For a mass workers party on a socialist\nprogramme!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally written as a pamphlet distributed on the Unite Against\nCorruption march on 30 September 2015<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Regime Change! For System Change! For a workers government on a socialist programme Nkandla, Guptagate, the arms deal, failed local government audits, fraudulent qualifications, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1156,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154\/revisions\/1156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}