Repatri(h)ate? - Thought Leader

October 2002, KwaZulu-Natal Parliament, Pietermaritzburg, Comrade Bheki Cele (chair of chairs) in and from the speaker’s chair: ” … the problem is that some of us (looking to the ANC) came into politics to help the people and to do the work in building a better life for all … but some people in this house (looking at the IFP) came into politics only to make money it seems … I for one didn’t come into politics to make money, I made my money before I came into politics and I don’t make my money from politics … “

It was this moment in my life sitting in the gallery looking down at what I call the bullpen, that it occurred to me that just perhaps we Liberals were not alone in our quest for honest government and effective service delivery. Indeed having just written a tirade about the DA’s Harksen scandal, and an exposition of the legitimacy imperative of seeking and holding the moral high ground, I felt lifted when I heard Comrade Cele tell us we were not alone.

Naturally through my journey from then to now, I have seen that perhaps not all of the people who are given the responsibility of leading and governing are able to do so in an ethical and honest fashion. That indeed once they are given the mandate of executive authority and opportunity distribution, their own needs and imperatives take precedence over those of the people at large.

Having investigated and exposed corruption in government, public service and civil-society arenas, and having seen first-hand that the graft connections between these three “community-focused” environs are in fact long term and difficult to isolate at all without removing all of the elements of the line completely; it has become clear to me that first and foremost among our objectives must be the eradication of corruption.

And since I have personally designed the system that makes it possible for any and all political parties to be wholly independent of and non-reliant upon donor funding or state subsidies and at the same time be able to connect permanently with every member of their political constituencies — while being able to know what effect on citizen satisfaction will be yielded from each R1 allocated to a specific public service in a particular street, in a particular voting district — I see no reason to tolerate corruption in any form.

I have made every effort to ensure that every political party interested in this path of corruption-free politics had and has the opportunity to take advantage of these technologies by making them freely available to the political industry through my community social development trust.

The fact that the ANC has ignored this option tells me the ANC is too indebted to its networks of political operators who launder the margins of state procurement and investment and the proceeds of state licences and opportunities, cycling the money from state to contractor to sub-contractor to political party, in an effort to ensure that “the party” is well-resourced.

This is the grey money in the political industry, and without exception, every political leader turns a blind eye to the sources of their donations, at some time, although every one will burn the donor at a moment’s notice, if even just the suggestion of impropriety is made against the donor.

Now when we look at the three types of politicians, being:

The honest politicians who entered politics to improve the world and who do not profit from the abuse of the power of their offices.
The honest but compromised politicians who entered politics to improve the world but who have either themselves or as a result of their official duties condoned some form of nefarious political funding and who are now content with turning a blind eye to the corruption in the interests of the welfare of their party.
The dishonest politicians who entered politics to barter power for wealth and who make a trade from the sale of their influence and preference.

We see that the grey money is an intrinsic part of the political industry and that without the Agenda 2058 innovations, it is currently impossible to eradicate corruption and remove the grey money.

One wonders when looking at the right-of-might feudal democracy of India, whether their graft and corruption is endemic to their system or rather the product of colonial implant in specific distribution. The answer naturally is that India is a very corrupt country where the sale of power and influence is the daily trade of elected officials.

Now when we look at the modal synthesis of these two cultures, that is in the amalgam of African and Indian political techniques, we see that there are few if any differences, and indeed that the problems created by corruption in Africa, are the same problems created by corruption in India.

So when people suggest that we repatriate the Indians in Africa back to India, because apparently:

It is the Indians who have corrupted innocent politicians like JZ.
It is the Indians who have taken all the jobs away from African and coloured people.
It is the Indians who have the best houses, cars and material possessions.
It is the Indians who have corrupted government and the public service.
It is the Indians who fought for the British against the Boers and Bambata.
It is the Indians who have only looked after their own liberation.

I say that in terms of Indian culture, corruption is wrong, inequality of opportunity distribution is wrong, materialism is wrong, failure to deliver services is wrong, co-operation with evil is wrong and parochial selfishness is wrong.

So these people who are supposed to be repatriated back to India, they aren’t Indian in a cultural sense and I fail to see on what basis the Indian government would grant them citizenship since they are not Indian. But if the contention is that irrespective of their creed that their ethnicity guarantees them Indian citizenship, then unfortunately our ethnicity as Thamizh people guarantees us Africa Union citizenship as our blood relatives, the Nubian people, and we have became who we are as result of our descent from the ancestors of Africa.

And 150 years ago, our African ancestors allowed our common slave master to transport us by sea from Calcutta and Madras to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius and South Africa (among other places) to turn the bankrupt colony of Natal (among other colonial territories) in 1859 into an economic powerhouse of the British Empire by 1863.

In addition to turning the marshland of Durban into the city that it is today and in addition to making it possible for the Kingdom of KwaZulu to benefit from the progress of industrialisation without the indenture under which we laboured, we have sought to build unity between our peoples over time.

One is thus forced to ask why prominent African charterist and congress politicians are singing the hymns and tunes of one Siener van Rensburg, in advocating the repatriation of Indian people back to India? Who would benefit from such a xenophobic endeavour? Certainly neither African nor Indian people.