COP27: Who Will Keep An Eye On The Money?

At last year’s COP26 meeting, several European countries pledged the equivalent of R150 billion ($8.5 billion) to help Eskom out of its quagmire. This money is earmarked to help Eskom, one of South Africa’s biggest polluters, along with Sasol, shut down ageing power plants and migrate to renewable energy.
I am probably not the only one worrying about how this money will be spent and who is going to ensure it does not get stolen. 

Journalists Are Now The Thin Blue Line Between Us And Anarchy

The truth about the Marikana Massacre would never have been known if it weren’t for journalists. In the tireless investigation, a brave team of researchers captained by Kate Alexander and journalist Greg Marinovich laid bare the truth.
It’s been a decade since 34 miners were unceremoniously gunned down on a hill by Lonmin’s platinum mine near Rustenburg, in what has gone down in history as the “Marikana Massacre”.
 

Eskom 2.0 – Setting Us Up for (Yet) Another Fall

Not many people would argue that Eskom is a catastrophe that, instead of contributing to the development of our country, costs us billions of Rands every day.
One would think the solution lies in incentivising investment in alternate energy sources such as wind and solar.
Instead, the proposal currently on the table is the creation of a second state owned power utility – Eskom 2.0.
Fear not – you are not the only incredulous one.
 

Aggression Hides Transgression: Bheki Cele and why we need to shine a light into the darkness

It’s human nature to be defensive when we come under attack. But there’s a difference between defending our actions with reasonable justification and being blatantly aggressive to deflect attention away from the undesirable and inconvenient truth.
The recent altercation between our Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, and Action Society’s Ian Cameron is a classic case in point.

Lip Service. Stop Talking and Start Doing

GATVOL. That is what South Africans are feeling.
GATVOL about the staggering amounts of taxpayers’ money that the Guptas and their cronies stole during the nine ‘state capture’ years, with the full knowledge and cooperation of former president, Jacob Zuma.
GATVOL that the crime of the century took place under the noses of the deputy president at the time (Cyril Ramaphosa) and the entire Cabinet.....

The Collapse of South Africa – The Zondo Chronicles

Don’t hold your breath for prosecutions emanating from the Zondo Commission, and certainly not from that little matter of millions of dollars under Cyril’s mattress, in contravention of forex rules. You’ll just turn blue and pass out.
South Africa is, frankly, a failed state just 28 years after the dawn of democracy. 

Cyril and his Mattress Millions

It’s unclear just how much respect President Cyril Ramaphosa lost recently when it was revealed that millions in foreign currency were stolen from his Limpopo farm, Phala Phala. The president has been rather quiet about the whole thing, saying only that he traded animals and that’s why the cash wasn’t turned into Rands, as is meant to be the case.
 

The Cracks Turn Into Crevasses. Counting the Real Cost of the Crazy Cost of Living

Covid-19, loadshedding, and now, crippling electricity price hikes and record-high fuel prices.
The cost of living, especially when it comes to critical essentials such as food and transport, is rising far faster than any of us can hope to keep up with.
Even those sectors of the population that have previously weathered the situation reasonably well are struggling.

State Capture’s Role in Loadshedding. Why South Africa is really in the Dark.

In 2019 alone, loadshedding cost our country R120 billion and one million lost jobs. Businesses are closing in their thousands, unable to withstand the double whammy of the Covid pandemic and relentless, crippling power problems.
There is as yet, no end in sight.
Much of the blame for the crisis can be laid squarely at the feet of the Zuma administration.

Forget Bermuda - Welcome to the Fraud Triangle

Developed in 1951 by criminology researcher Donald Cressey. 
Cressey concluded that all the cases he studied conformed to the same three-step process, which makes up the three sides of the Fraud Triangle:
Pressure
An opportunity to violate trust.
The rationalisation that defines the behaviour as appropriate for the specific situation.