The Limpopo fiasco unfortunately confirms the stereotype that us blacks folks cannot manage our finances

It is only in Africa when a province elects back into office a premier who has created such repulsive results-- accumulated unauthorised expenditure which has grown from R1.5-billion in 2009 to R2.7-billion in 2011. It is only in Africa where financial management are an unnecessary competence for leaders.

I have argued in the past the masses have a very trifling collective intelligence when it comes to politics because people vote based on emotion and not logic.The Limpopo provincial government in my view should be liquidated for incompetence and voters should be demonstrating at the abuse of tax payer's funds. In fact the premier should be fired in my books.

This is another clear case of "the underdevelopment of Africa by Africans " where having caused significant damage to the public purse, the perpetrators have the audacity to hold a pressconference and  claim that they are being victimised. How can that be when we hear that there was R400-millon in irregular expenditure of goods and services, mostly medical equipment, there are at least 200 "ghost" teachers were paid and there were 2 400 excess teachers in the province, that R427-million in assets had no supporting documents and the list goes on.

The management of public resources cannot be left in the hands of incompetent people regardless of their political popularity. That is exactly what happened in Zimbabwe where politics became the determining factor of who manages our resources and look where the country is.

The Limpopo fiasco unfortunately confirms the stereotype that us blacks folks cannot manage our finances and further entrenches white prejudice against black control. As blacks people, we cannot defend the shenanigans in Limpopo and whoever is involved should really be ashamed of their actions. The danger we face is that the perpetrators have not admitted their mistakes which means they think they are right and have nothing to learn from this.

I am not also told by some contacts in Limpopo that they have had to close their BEE companies because they have not been paid by the government nor have they been getting new contracts as these have been dished out to Malema's cronies. I believe him.

We can argue till kingdom come on economic transformation, nationalisation and BEE but if the result of all that is what we are hearing now then surely the ANC leadership must take the bull by the horns as they have done and ensure that this putrefaction does not continue.

As blacks we need to be unflinching and expect the highest management standards from our brothers s and sisters in power because if we do not that we will unintentionally be contributing to our own underdevelopment.

The struggle continues.

Vince Musewe is an economist and you may contact him on [email protected]

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