Racism+behind+Gautrain+saga+says+Mbeki,+Amy+Musgrave,+Weekender

Business Day Weekender, 09 December 2006
=Racism behind Gautrain saga, says Mbeki=


 * AMY MUSGRAVE**

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has taken the African National Congress’s (ANC) alliance partners, opposition parties and the media to task for “assuming that black people are inherently corrupt”.

He says this is how issues such as cabinet ministers’ involvement in the R23bn Gautrain Rapid Rail link project are blown out of proportion.

In his weekly online newsletter on Friday, Mbeki says the accusations are a multiparty offensive on the ANC, involving the commercial media — the Sunday Times — the Democratic Alliance, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

“What has brought them together is a shared conviction that the ANC has allowed itself to be transformed into a ravenous monster controlled by individuals dedicated to the pursuit of wealth,” he says.

“In these circumstances, it’s up to the accused ANC leaders to prove their innocence, with no obligation on the part of the accusers to prove the correctness of their allegations levelled against these leaders.

“The Gautrain story confirms the hard reality that as long as the racist conviction that Africans are naturally prone to corruption, venality and mismanagement persists, so long must we remain on guard to fight the canards that will be peddled, serving as media headlines with greater frequency than summer rains.”

Mbeki was responding for the first time to allegations that Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Education Minister Naledi Pandor and the speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, held shares in the consortium building the Gautrain.

Mbeki says none of the accusers in the ANC movement — Cosatu and the SACP — has asked the ANC whether the allegations were true.

Since the allegations were published, it has been established that Mapisa-Nqakula and Mbete were founding members of Dyambu Holdings, an investment group that has a 3% option to buy into Gautrain contractor Bombela’s black empowerment arm, Strategic Partners Group.

Mbeki says neither woman has had contact with Dyambu since 2000 and they do not own share certificates. They have effectively ceased to play a role in Dyambu because of internal problems in the company. As a member of the Black Management Forum, Pandor bought shares in the Black Management Forum Investment (BMFI) Company, which has a stake in Bombela via Strategic Partners. This was before she went into government.

“The fact is that, like thousands of other black shareholders, Pandor holds a fraction of the issued share capital of BMFI and would be foolish to expect that the dividends that might one day flow from her minute ownership could buy her even a month’s supply of brown bread. And she is no fool,” Mbeki says.

He reiterates the cabinet’s statement, made on Thursday, that neither the bid nor the bidders were discussed at cabinet level at any stage as this was the function of Gauteng province.

National government was drawn into the matter when it became obvious the Gauteng government did not have the resources to carry out the project, and to ensure it was integrated into the national transport system.


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/weekender.aspx?ID=BD4A338303**

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