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2015’s character tests for President Zuma

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Wayne Duvenage is a businessman and entrepreneur turned civil activist. Following former positions as CEO of AVIS and President of SA Vehicle Renting and Leasing Association, Duvenage has headed the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse since its inception in 2012.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity,” Abraham Lincoln once said. “But if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Few men can withstand the levels of adversity endured by President Zuma, but if he continues to abuse his political and constitutional power, he is destined for historical ignominy. The brain-dead e-toll fiasco certainly gives him an opportunity to signal some rational thinking and to move in the direction of doing good and making sense to people.

Over the past five years, since the hosting of the Soccer World Cup, there have been numerous blunders that have catapulted our country into a questionable place to invest, the combination of which has weighed heavily on the nation.  Sadly, the South African government has shown very poor leadership by having squandered the “development dividend” that the FIFA World Cup was supposed to have brought. Of the countless incidents we have witnessed, the three stooge blunders of stupendous proportion must be those of Eskom, Nkandla and e-tolls.

Yes, the ongoing fiascos at SAA and the SABC, along with the SA Post Office circus, can be thrown into the mix, but some swift action on these three stooge issues could spark a positive nation building energy that we so dearly need today.

Chris Yelland and other commentators have scrutinized the Eskom debacle, which is largely twofold; the energy crisis following years of neglect and poor leadership, along with the shenanigans surrounding the two new plants at Medupi and Kusile – taking twice as long to build at four times the original budget. Unfortunately, the energy issue is serious and will take longer than we would like to fix, but some real action with an independent inquiry to give meaningful explanation and to hold people to account, would be welcomed.

Might this logical action have crossed the president’s mind? After Chancellor House’s ability to benefit in millions of rands from their brief investment in the Medupi project, I doubt it.

The Nkandla issue is firmly in the grip of opposition parties, leaving President Zuma with a simple, stark choice; to display moral courage by doing what the Constitution requires and pay back the money he owes. Just imagine the message, the trust building and positive energy that such a display of humility would have on our nation’s psyche, if the president found his moral compass on the Nkandla issue.

Might this logical action have crossed the president’s mind? “What is this man smoking?” I hear you ask. But just imagine.

The third and probably easiest aspect of damage control that Zuma could undertake, to instill some degree of faith in his ability to lead, would be to take charge and reverse the signing of the e-toll bill. SANRAL’s legal machinations around e-tolling have intensified the crisis of legitimacy that afflicts the Zuma administration, which has serious ramifications for social stability. Addressing the e-toll issue will bring a sigh of relief and significant positive energy to quell the rising tide of sheer frustration with the irrational e-toll decision.

And it has been made easy for him to do. By his own party, the Gauteng local branches and provincial congress of the ANC, as well as the ANCYL and the Local Government Association (SALGA), all of which have unanimously rejected the scheme. In addition, Gauteng Premier David Makhura has shown the requisite political pragmatism to chart a different course. By assessing the socio-economic impact of e-tolls through a qualified advisory panel, we have all heard the overwhelming rejection of the scheme by virtually every sector of society.

Even easier for the president would be to now take 10c from this week’s R1,27c per litre fuel price reduction and allocate this to the fuel levy, in order that Treasury (SANRAL) can service the R2,2bn per annum required for GFIP bonds and finance costs.

If the hard reality of local and provincial political dynamics is not convincing enough, President Zuma need not look further than the financial and performance realities of the scheme to guide him. Over the past year, e-tolling has been a financial disaster and is failing dismally. When SANRAL realised they fell well short of their original monthly revenue target of R260m, all they did was to vainly put a positive spin on the revenue collection process by lowering their targets instead. This was akin to a Grade 12 pupil writing a Grade 8 exam and rejoicing over the improved results.

The resultant farcical statements made by SANRAL throughout 2014 were unable to mask the simple reality that an average of around R90m per month – or 34% of the required amount and declining – has been generated. This is a gross fail for their ‘user pay’ system.

One can only speculate that the only reason for the continued operation of the system, is to enable the local contracted service providers (catering, cleaning, security, computers, stationery suppliers and others) to enjoy their portion of the R90m per month, with very little, if anything going toward the tarmac.

We’ve been in many tough places before as a nation and this is no time to slack off. One wonders, however, if indeed the president will grasp this quick and easy ‘nation building’ opportunity to start the new-year with, by scrapping the e-toll decision. This use of his power, for the time he still has in office, will certainly go a long way to build, heal and restore our faith in government’s ability to lead. DM

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