07 May 2013 | Tony Leon | Original Publication: BDlive
'Gupta' has become a verb
denoting the selling of a country’s soul and patrimony to foreign bidders with
deep pockets, writes Tony Leon
A FOREST’s worth of paper and gridfuls of electrons have been expended
on commenting on Sun City’s version of our very own Monsoon Wedding. There is
something appropriately Bollywood about the Gupta nuptials and the drama evoked
in their breaching of national security, flouting of protocol and the sheer
excess of the event. A comedy of errors and the symbolic shaming of a nation
evoked a chorus of condemnation which, just for once, united the "usual
suspects" in the opposition and media together with the paladins in the
highest reaches of the governing alliance.
According to my old Collins English Dictionary, "Gupta" is a
noun denoting "the dynasty ruling northern India from the early fourth to
the late sixth century AD, a period of famous achievement in the fields of art,
science and mathematics". However, according to the more contemporary
blogosphere and Twitterverse, Gupta has become a verb denoting the selling of a
country’s soul and patrimony to foreign bidders with deep pockets and close
connections to the ruling family. Or perhaps a synonym for the crony capitalism
embedded in the paraphernalia of black economic empowerment and the vertical
nature of power — where "know who" trumps "know how" and
personal enrichment is acquired through political access and greasing the
wheels of political parties.
But the uncharacteristic speed and decisiveness of the government’s
response to the outrage evoked by the Gupta wedding saga suggests other forces
are at play.
Arguably, the arms deal scandal is of far greater weight than the
unauthorised landing of one plane at an air force base; or the serial
revelations concerning the communications minister and her apparent confusion
between her public duties and her private relationships, not to mention her
inability to manage her own office, never mind South Africa’s barely built
digital highway. Yet, in the first case, the judicial commission of inquiry has
become a site of internal controversy and nonperformance. In the second, the
Presidency, in whose gift the appointment of ministers lies, seems unconcerned
about the damage caused by a key presidential lieutenant.
None of this suggests that the intensity of the scrutiny and the
response to the Gupta affair is either unwelcome or unnecessary. But perhaps
Gupta has also become a byword for a growing unease about the meshing of
commercial power and political influence, with a dash of xenophobia adding some
spice to the mix. Then there is what the African National Congress (ANC),
borrowing from the language of Stalin, called in the Mbeki era, "the
national question", code for dealing with ethnic minorities in our racial
mosaic.
Stephen Ellis’s masterful recent book, External Mission — The ANC in
Exile, provides a compelling account of the often tortuous interplay between
the Africanist forces in the ANC and the explicitly multiracial South African
Communist Party, before and after the ANC opened its ranks to non-Africans. On
his account, deep suspicion by ANC security chiefs of a largely Indian and
derisively named "cabal" during the heyday of the United Democratic
Front (UDF) in the 1980s owed a great deal to the fact that the UDF in Natal
"owed its strength to the Indian constituency especially".
But if some of the Gupta finger-pointing has an ethnic dimension, what
of another national minority, the coloureds? Rapport newspaper on Sunday
headlined a case in the Labour Court. It concerns the underpromotion of 10
coloured officers in the Department of Correctional Services in the Western
Cape and revolves around the department using national rather than provincial
demographics to determine its equity targets. One of the complainants, Geo-Nita
Baartman, testified that not only was she both previously and severely
disadvantaged but, as she put it: "I fail to understand why I sit here
today … to defend myself over policies I have no control over." She was
referring to the "coloured labour preference policy", which the
National Party enforced in the Cape to keep Africans out of the province.
The Gupta affair provides, ironically, both a distraction from and
another perspective on an intense national debate.
But there is something also rather universal about it. Last week, for
example, The Economist published a searing critique of South African-style
affirmative action under the headline, "Fool’s Gold". In this week’s
edition, a correspondent’s pithy response was published as the "featured
comment". CA-Oxonian wrote: "SA is doing a replay of the Russian game
whereby a tiny number of well-connected people become fabulously wealthy
through the acquisition of assets other people have created, and then entrench
themselves in both the economic and political hierarchies. We’ve seen it before
and we’ll see it again."
Another definition, perhaps, for Gupta.
• Leon is the author of The Accidental
Ambassador (Pan Macmillan). Follow him on Twitter: @TonyLeonSA OR on Facebook: facebook.com/TonyLeonSA
1 comment:
Mr Leon, I must say I enjoy reading your blog. I must say you're a great writer and I had no idea. Not so long ago I watched your interview on expresso. I would really love buy your book, where can I get a copy? I have been interested since my years of stumbling upon my sister International Relations text book for varsity and I have never looked back. I enjoy how you explain articles and theories that some of us found quite complex in Varsity. Please let know wher I can get a copy and if possible can you sign my book for me....pushing my luick I know. What advice can you give to someone who has interst in becoming a diplomat and future ambassador of SA besides Tertiary WQualifications which I have acquired alreday. Just battling to get into DIRCO
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