Cadre deployment is to be expected everywhere. Incoming US administrations do it as a matter of course. But why have so many of the most influential of the SA cadres proved so very fallible, as revealed in full gory detail by Zondo.? It is the leaders after all who set the standard. That crime may be expected to pay, given kickbacks to the right places, is part of an explanation. Short-term horizons “ if I don’t take advantage then my insider competitors will do so” may help explain some of the observed behaviour. There has been no lack of competition for the material opportunities offered in the South Africa that have gone well beyond what could be regarded as decent salaries and other employment benefits. Including the generous rewards provided for serving on the boards or management teams of the semi-autonomous government boards responsible for regulating private conduct. Of which many became notorious for providing opportunity for shopping/conference trips abroad and for contrived multiple Board meetings, for which valuable hourly attendance fees are unnecessarily charged.
The key posts in SA government departments and agencies turnover very rapidly with changes in the direction of the political winds – so paranoia of those in office is not irrational. The large financial gains observed coming from BEE – without any obvious relationship between input and benefits realized – may be a further influence. That you become be fabulously rich when lucky in your partnerships –obtained through your political connections rather than your observable efforts or skills – and through doing business with government on highly favourable terms because of these connections – is morally debilitating. And indicates for wide notice that competence or dedication is not necessarily rewarded nor essential to the purpose of getting on in life.
Repeat business is the most valuable source of sales and profits for any business. It helps to keep their owners and workers honest and competitive striving to enhance valuable reputations for fair dealing. Governments departments or agencies however have monopoly power. A trust in their good practice is to be heavily relied upon. It is a trust demanded of those teaching a class, serving in a public hospital or in a police or border post enforcing the law. Yet we need them at more than they seem to need us. We wait in line or on-line patiently and smile obediently. We are not customers but supplicants of the government agencies with great influence over us. Imagine life without a passport, visa, vaccination certificate or a driving license, a good education, or a well-organized casualty ward? We would like to believe that the public servants are trying as hard as they know how, to please us. Because that is the right respectful way.
Unconstrained self-interest cannot fully explain what has gone on in SA. It calls for explanations made better by psychologists. philosophers or historians than economists. Do we understand the derivation of the values that determine the culture of the workplace? Can we explain how a sense of honour, honesty, patriotism or duty is developed to help set the reasonable and realistic expectations of the supplier and user of services of all kinds? Helpful attitudes and good performance are encouraged by a strong sense of vocation- a sense of a job worth doing well. For what are widely recognized as appropriate material rewards that can be well understood and accepted by all parties involved. How are they cultivated? They are part of the implicit employment, or what can be understood more broadly, as a social contract. The best standards do not emerge overnight and should be actively cultivated. Ethics has to be well taught.
When regimes change and the power structures change radically with it, a strong sense of life changing opportunities can become overwhelming and corrupting. The large gains achieved in SA via misgovernment have been highly very damaging to the incomes and prospects of most South Africans. It will take acknowledgement and understanding of it as the path to an agreed much improved moral order and stronger economy. It calls for a new social contract, the hope for a Zondo inspired devotion to doing your duty for fair reward and for obeying and enforcing laws justly made and deservedly respected. A community of those wanting to give service rather than take unfair advantage of their favoured status could become the new morality.