After reading a post on Group Sex for Amoebas by the Western Cape Marginilized Voice group highlighting the systemic abuse of taxpayer funds under the National Party during the days of apartheid, I need to once again set the record straight – our present woes are due to an ancient systemic abuse of power by politicians no matter their race, creed, country or affiliation and not just one small group of White Afrikaners.
Of course this is not a new thing – South Africa does not hold the Guinness Book of Records number one spot for the country that only ever experienced fraud by politicians.
In fact one of the specific crimes recorded by the ancient Romans was Res Repetundae (Extortion/Recovery): A complex crime involving the abuse of authority by magistrates (governors, senators, etc.) in Roman provinces who would illegally extort money or goods from the provincial populace for personal enrichment. Trials related to res repetundae were major political events. Laws addressing repetundae date back as early as the 2nd century BC (171 BC), showing that this type of political abuse was a serious and frequent problem.
I am quite confident in saying that there are currently no countries on Earth that can definitively claim to have absolutely zero fraud and corruption by politicians.
So, this kind of kak has been going on for a very long time.
Here in Nelson Mandela Bay we have many open fraud cases for locals – who was thinking Gary van Niekerk? Remember Gary has been accused and not found guilty. In 207 Bishop Mzukisi Samuel Banzanal was convicted on 14 September for Corruption and Fraud related to Housing Contracts. Banzanal was an active member of the African National Congress (ANC), associated with the Mzingisi Development Trust.
Banzanal was convicted in connection with corruption and maladministration at the Mzingisi Development Trust, which was awarded a contract by the Department of Human Settlements in 2007 to build 1 211 RDP houses in the northern areas of then-Port Elizabeth. He was sentenced to a 12-year sentence for corruption, a significant victory for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.
BUT, if you are too important or busy to read on then my bottom line goes as follows:
Sure, the National Party did loot – they took their example from the colonial powers that looted South Africa in the first place and our present government just continued.
Where our present government has failed is:
- Under the NP there was lots of cheap labour that was vigorously controlled so, as a result, we had pretty streets and government departments that functioned. In contrast our present government touted a ‘living wage’ and created great expectations (and high labour costs) in the working class.
- Under the NP there was censorship of all media. In contrast our present government opened the floodgates with a progressive constitution – opening everyone up to scrutiny.
- Under the NP when politicians were caught out they got Golden Handshakes. In contrast our present government does exactly the same but on a grander more ‘fuck you’ scale.
- Under the NP the section of the populace that felt the burden and had to pay for SA being on the verge of collapse was the black and coloured population. In contrast our present government makes every single one of us not in the upper echelons of the ruling party suffer and then they stand by as we hurl racist insults at one another.
The ANC did not inherit a uniquely South African broken system, they inherited a system that has been broken for thousands of years – a system that favours liars, cheats and the connected. We need a system that favours the honest, the hardworking and the people that give of themselves.
Let’s not buy into the narrative of racisms, the narrative of have and have nots, let’s rather buy into the narrative of hyper local first, country next and service above all.
So when it comes to #LGE2026 I will be looking to vote for the party that appears to be one that will loot the least – it seems that this political looting and corruption has been going on since long before Jesus chased the money changers out of the temple.
Maybe South Africa should start small and publicly announce that our goal is not the absence of corruption, but the creation of systems that make corruption difficult to commit, easy to detect, and certain to be punished.
We should be following the lead of Denmark which scored 90/100 on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2024/25. It is said that the factors contributing to Denmark scoring so high include: Transparent governance, strict anti-corruption laws, high public trust, and a strong culture of ethics.
The Facebook Post by Western Cape Marginilized Voice group that sparked the above (plus one or two knuckle dragger comments):
THE REAL RECORD OF APARTHEID: THEFT, FRAUD AND LOOTING ON A NATIONAL SCALE
Before anyone dares lecture Black South Africans about “destroying the country,” let’s put the truth back on the table — the truth the uitlander crowd and the new neoliberal priesthood conveniently erase.
The Apartheid State Was a Looting Machine
The poster exposes exactly what millions already know:
- Piet du Plessis – R53 million fraud case.
- Pik Botha – R1.8 million “investment” handed to a Nigerian businessman who vanished.
- Magnus Malan – R850,000+ golden handshake and double pensions.
- Adriaan Vlok – R111,878 just to “live in his house.”
These are not accidents.
This was systemic, organised theft — taxpayers’ money looted by the same National Party elite whose descendants now pretend they are “clean.”
The Past Was Never Clean — It Was Privatised, White-Owned Plunder
These men didn’t only loot money.
They looted land, labour, industries, state assets, and generational wealth.
That is why the shift from apartheid to neoliberalism was so “smooth”:
the same corporations, banks, conglomerates, and oligarchs simply changed the curtains and kept the house.Terreblanche wrote it clearly: “The NP negotiated economic protection for the same white elite, while forcing the new government into an ambiguous, neoliberal constitution designed to preserve private power.”
That is the real “foundation” South Africa inherited.
The Constitution Protects Capital More Than Citizens
It is not accidental that:
- monopolies survived,
- land reform stalled,
- the commanding heights of the economy remained ring-fenced,
- the poor stayed poor,
- and any radical restructuring became “unconstitutional.”
This was engineered — not by the ANC — but by the apartheid-era economists, lawyers, and consultants who wrote the economic rules under American, British, and IMF pressure.
Today’s Failures Are a Hybrid: Old Apartheid Architecture + ANC Misrule
Yes, the ANC destroyed municipalities.
Yes, corruption in the post-1994 era is catastrophic.
But let’s be honest:
- You cannot build a people’s state on a foundation designed to protect white capital, limit state power, and ensure the rich remain untouchable.
- The “rainbow miracle” was a transfer of political power without economic power.
- The elite remained the elite.
- Only a small layer of politically connected Black faces were added to the feeding trough.
And the DA? Spare Us the Fairy Tales
The DA runs the Cape with the same neoliberal model inherited from the NP:
- billions unaccounted for,
- tenders disappearing into “preferred contractors,”
- no land reform,
- brutal spatial apartheid still intact,
- black communities underfunded and over-policed.
They benefit from the old order because they are the old order with better PR.
So let’s stop pretending the DA is a yardstick for “good governance.”
They simply hide their dirt better and lean on decades of structural privilege.
FINAL WORD
Before anyone tells Black South Africans they “chose to fail,” show them this poster again.
The original thieves, the original looters, the original architects of destruction — were the same men praised as “efficient administrators.”
South Africa did not collapse because Black people got freedom.
It is collapsing because we inherited a rigged system, written to protect the old apartheid economy, and then watched the ANC squander what political leverage it did have.
This is the truth — the one they hope you forget.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/260017806087757/permalink/1097659485656914/
Some of the comments are predictable:
- Now riddle me this? If all that looting went on and SA had the best electricity network in Africa and possibly the world, a flagship SAA, clean and solid infrastructure, an Army, Police Force and Navy with working and maintained equipment, what does that tell you about the looting by the ANC?
SAA gone, Army non existent, Police more corrupt than a hard drive with a virus, Navy with 3 rubber ducks, infrastructure gone to the dogs not to mention the Education and Medical sectors.
You point out 4 people who apparently looted less than the small change tender irregularities currently being exposed on a daily basis?
You can come with all this Apartheid nonsense that the economy is still in white hands? Maybe go and do research and see why SA is still sustainable? Put that economy in black hands and I guarantee you it will end up like the SAA, SANDF, Navy, SAPS and any other institution that was run by black leaders. - So this is how you justify it then? With broken maths? If that is the sum total of what was looted in the Apartheid era, just remember…. The ANC and its cadres stole 500Billion in 3 months during covid. How do you even compare it. Please come up with something better.
- It”s like you trying to make what the ANC government is doing ok because the apartheid government did it nee bruh 2 wrongs will never make a right .One difference between the two is that the apartheid government did not loot to the point where the country is on the verge of collapse. Stop blaming apartheid for the incompetence of the ANC over all these years they still can’t get it right.
- Oh wow , what so this makes it ok for the ANC government to bankrupt SA , where did the ANC get ESKOM , the railways , roads , the army , Denel , everything that they have looted , and broken the country , stupid post , people don’t have jobs and you want to compare the previous white government to today’s .
- Stupid.
