In Limpopo, one of the country’s poorest provinces, Premier Cassel Mathale has just bought an “imperial blue” BMW 750i worth R1 zz055 050. His MEC for Public Works, Pandelani Ramagoma, opted for a R800 000 Land Rover, on which the tax alone is close on R100 000. Pitsi Moloto, the MEC for economic development, environment and tourism, bought an Audi Q7 worth R560 000, which – with the help of some extras – landed up costing taxpayers almost R900 000.
Alex Eliseev It’s a WaBenzi Frenzy 12/6/2009
Then there is Mbuso Moloi, the man who was caught on camera near a looted Woolies loading a basketful of stolen goods into the boot of his Mercedes-Benz. He tried to talk his way out of trouble by telling a journalist that he happened to be passing by when he saw the basket and the goods lying around in the street, so he thought he would help himself. But another video soon emerged showing him coming out of the shop, hence exposing his lie.
Apologists for the looting would want us to believe it was all due to poverty, but this Mampara candidate shows that this type of villainy knows no class boundaries.
Hogarth Sunday Times 18//7/2021.
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The ironic symbolism of Mbuso Moloi helping himself and loading his loot into the boot of his beautiful Mercedes-Benz 300 AMG coupe – which would have cost him around a million rand when he bought it at Aksons Wheels in Durban – would have surprised nobody who, for the past 27 years, has watched unlawfully-deployed cadres, with a similar penchant for luxury vehicles, helping themselves with rapacious avarice.
He ended up in court, an unusual WaBenzi occurrence given the aversion the governing party has to prosecution.
The ANC’s Champagne Comrades and Caviar Communists, while decrying White Monopoly Capital, have never been shy about abusing taxpayers’ money to acquire the fruits of WMC technology for themselves.
What is ironic is the way in which they, while denigrating colonialism, covet the automotive marques such Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, all of which began business in the colonial era.
Not that they eschew exotic cars with a similarly colonial heritage. As detailed in Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s book, Gangster State, Igo Mpambani, the beneficiary of multi-million rand tenders during the catastrophic tenure of Ace Magashule in the Orange Free State, was gunned down in June 2017 while driving his R3 million Bentley Continental GT.
It’s tough at the trough.
Luxury vehicles abound during ANC conferences.
In fact, the luxury Mercedes-Benz ML320 4×4 became colloquially known as a ‘Yengeni’ after Tony Yengeni and a bunch of his comrades got a cut-price deal from the Arms Deal beneficiary, EADS.
This saw him employed to high office after serving just four months of a four-year jail sentence in what Luthuli House clearly saw as an incentive to other comrades to follow his example.
Here’s a list of luxury vehicles acquired by the deployed cadres a decade ago which cost around R58 million in total:
Department of Communications, Minister Siphiwe Nyanda, R1.7 million, BMW 730d and Range Rover Sport TDV8
Department of Basic Education, Minister Angie Motshekga, R11 million
Free State Provincial Cabinet, 11 members, 10 Mercedes-Benz S500s and 1 Mercedes-Benz S600 for Premier Ace Magashule
Free State Provincial Cabinet R795,000 Mercedes-Benz S350
Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Minister Buyelwa Sonjica, R1.4 million, BMW X5 3.0d and BMW X5 Si 3.0 with R202,000 worth of extras
Department of Police, Minister Nathi Mthethwa, R1.3 million, Mercedes-Benz S250 (x2) with R150,000 worth of extras each
Department of Science and Technology, Minister Naledi Pandor, R1 million Toyota Prado (R480,000) and BMW X5 (R550,000)
Moretele Municipality, North West Province, Mayor Asnath Molekwa, R1.1 million, BMW 750i
Department of Higher Education, Minister Blade Nzimande, R740,000, BMW X5
Bitou Municipality, Western Cape, Mayor Lulama Mvimbi, R795,000, Mercedes-Benz S350
Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Minister Tina Joemat-Petterson, R760,000, Mercedes-Benz E500
Department of Health, Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, R820,000, Range Rover HSE
Eastern Cape Department of Health, MEC Phumulo Masualle, R615,000, Audi Q7 3.0 TDI
Eastern Cape Department of Public Works, MEC Pemmy Majodina, R770,000, Mercedes-Benz ML500
Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, MEC Sibongile Manana, R580,000, Mercedes-Benz ML500
Mpumalanga Department of Health, MEC Dikeledi Mahlangu, R700,000
Mpumalanga Department of Traditional Affairs, MEC Mohlalefi Mokoena, R845,000, Mercedes-Benz ML350
Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements, MEC Madala Masuku, R730,000, BMW X5
Limpopo Department of Transport, MEC Pinky Kekana, R880,000, BMW 740i
North West Department of Agriculture, MEC Boitumelo Tshwene, R900,000, BMW 735
North West Department of Public Works, MEC Mahlakeng Mahlakeng, R900,000, Mercedes-Benz GL500
North West Department of Housing, MEC Desbo Sefanyetso, R875,000
North West Department of Education, MEC Johannes Tselapedi, R795,000, Mercedes-Benz GL500
North West Department of Sports and Culture, MEC Grace Pampiri, R890,000, BMW X6
North West Department of Local Government, Gordon Kegakilwe, R1.5 million, BMW 550is (x2)
Department of Tourism, Deputy Minister Thokozile Xasa, R720,000, BMW 550i Sedan
Department of Arts and Culture, Deputy Minister Paul Matashile, R1.6 million, Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI for Pretoria office and Audi Q7 4.2 TDI for Cape Town office
Department of Communications, Deputy Minister Dina Pule, R670,000, Mercedes-Benz E350
Department of Public Enterprises, Deputy Minister Enoch Godongwana, R900,000, BMW X5 4.8 with extras
Department of Water and Environmental Affairs, Deputy Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi, R1.2 million, BMW 7 Series with extras
Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, R7 million fleet of Mercedes-Benz cars including four E-class sedans
Department of Defence, Minister Lindiwe Sisulu (2010), R6 million fleet of Mercedes-Benz ML 4x4s for traditional kings
Eastern Cape Provincial Government, R2 million, six Mercedes-Benz E-class cars for members of the Zulu Royal Family
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government, R850,000, two Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4s for members of Eastern Cape House of Traditional Affairs
Eastern Cape Provincial Government, R1.1 million, three Toyota Fortuner 4x4s for executive members of the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders
Eastern Cape Provincial Government, R1.2 million, BMW 750i with extras
Department of Foreign Affairs, Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, R1.4 million, BMW X5 3.0d and a Mercedes-Benz E350 CDI
Department of Public Service and Administration, Minister Richard Baloyi, R1.4 million, two BMW X5 3.0Ds
Department of Police, Minister Nathi Mthethwa (2009), R1.6 million, BMW 740i with extras, and Mercedes-Benz ML500 with extras
Department of Police, Deputy Minister Fikile Mbalula, R2.3 million Audi Q7 4.2 TDi Quattro
Acquiring luxury vehicles without spending a cent of their own money is all part, you understand, of the ANC’s self-proclaimed vanguard mandate to uplift the poorest of the poor and achieve ‘a better life for all’ as part of its ‘good story to tell’ – see here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here.
Of course it would be completely unreasonable, not to mention churlish, to accuse ANC acolytes of manically focusing on luxury vehicle acquisition when their Tsunami of Sleaze demands are far more eclectic.
The defining characteristic, obviously, of the ANC’s ‘Rich and Shameless’ is ‘no expense spared’ when it comes to splurging your hard-earned taxes to fund their life of luxury.
Catering is, of necessity, a high-priority requirement and prodigious quantities of KFC and Nando’s are considered a non-negotiable essential.
(It can surely only be a matter of time before one of our fast food franchises markets a monster burger called the Lucas?)
As an ANC WaBenzi you are, in terms of its prevailing ethos, with impunity and without spending your own money, and regardless of your smallanyana skeletons, entitled to wantonly indulge yourself in: luxury accommodation or home improvements or furniture or rugs and cushions or flowers or the best restaurants or wine cellars or car hire or bands or adding to your art collection or organising festivals or attending sports events or astronomical phone bills or award ceremonies or consultants to do your work for you or golden handshakes or local jaunts and overseas trips, the more the merrier and preferably on Gulfstream jets – and only the best will do – ask Lindiwe Sisulu, she’ll tell you.
The context is important – you must be seen as a ‘Big Spender’.
It is, of course, important to remain focused and not to be distracted by minor matters such as preventative maintenance and the bigger picture.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Even if you are a self-professed philanthropist, leave the charitable contributions to the Covid-19 Solidarity Fund to the Oppenheimers, the Ruperts, and Naspers.
All the responsibly-looting proletariat did in mid-July was to emulate what the ANC elite has been doing in following the example of their hero Robert Mugabe for the past 27 years and, more recently, whether you were driving a Merc or pushing a supermarket trolley, the goal was the same – to access the trough.
And, if at first you don’t succeed …
Nothing like this – see here and here and here and here and here and here and here – happened during the apartheid era.
Rory Short
It, corruption and other abuses of public money, is so widespread in SA that it is clearly part of the culture of those who participate in it. A country where the majority of the electorate share this culture can only be destined to join all the other countries already at the bottom of the economic pile.
philipmorkelyahoocom
Ed, where is this going and what can be done to prosecute or recover the stolen trillions, not just the ANC, but the NP before that? The various commissions and committees investigating this, are coining it for their own pockets.
It is not helping by hoping for a new government, which will , as all governments officials are there for their own agenda only: either to enrich and/or to empower themselves or to build empires of nepotism or to loot. Those who cannot hold down a job in the private sector become politicians and are essentially stealing from everyone, not just the poor, and therefor are criminals per se. Surely, YOU with your connections and investigative reporting (which is STILL extremely highly rated!), can provide this information (to the HAWKS?) for prosecutions to be instituted? Isn’t time to have special courts for the corruption to be fast tracked?
Stefan
Another frank, hard hitting article that accurately portrays post 1994 South Africa under ANC governance and is crucial for present domestic and foreign awareness and future understanding of events.