ANC-Hitachi investment turnaround: playing the country for fools
The capitulation by the ANC to properly disinvest from its stake in Hitachi is an indictment of a political party that has lost all credibility - this is the second time in three years that we have been promised that the ANC would disinvest, and the second time they have failed to do so.
The Hitachi link to Eskom has a sordid history of ANC denials and empty promises to appease the public:
On 21 February 2008, ANC Treasurer Mathews Phosa stated that the Hitachi deal will be exited from because "governance is an issue and there is public focus on this".
There was no confusion regarding this issue two years ago as it was a clear case of conflict of interest - yet nothing happened. (See article - Business Report)
Then the ANC performed an about turn on its opinion. As recently as January 20th, ANC Secretary General Gwede Manthashe was saying: "There is nothing wrong with investing in public companies and the Chancellor House has done nothing wrong," and that "Hitachi won the contract because it is a global company (with the skills) ... not because it has a minority shareholder which is called the ANC." (Source)