Corruption is the enemy of the poor

8 October 2015

My fellow South Africans

We are here outside the offices of Chancellor House Holdings this morning with one clear message: We will not tolerate corruption and the abuse of state funds by the ANC and its proxies.

We will not allow the ANC and its front companies to plunder public money, as they have done in awarding multi-billion Rand Eskom contracts to Japanese company Hitachi, in return for massive kick-backs.

We will not stand by while ordinary South Africans suffer from unemployment and service delivery failures while the ANC gets rich at their expense.

If the temptation of making big money on government tenders is too much for this ANC government, then they must step aside and make way for a DA government that will fight corruption, deliver services and create jobs.

Democrats,

The company inside this building here bears the name “Chancellor House”. This is no accident and it is no coincidence. They wanted this name for a very specific reason. And they don’t deserve it.

There was a time when the name Chancellor House stood for something proud and important. You see, Chancellor House is the name of a modest three storey building on the corner of Fox and Gerard Sekoto Streets in central Johannesburg.

And if you walked up the stairs to the second floor back in the 1950’s, you’d find the name “Mandela and Tambo Attorneys” sandblasted onto the door to three small rooms. In those rooms, two young black lawyers battled tirelessly for dignity, fairness and equal treatment of black South Africans.

For eight years, from 1952 to 1960, the Chancellor House building was the place where Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo would fight Apartheid’s evil and unjust laws. These two men would go on to become two of the greatest leaders our country has ever known.

Mandela and Tambo lead the fight for freedom, equality and an inclusive South Africa with opportunities for all. Chancellor House should enjoy a special place in the history of the struggle for a free and democratic South Africa.

But fast-forward half a century, and you will find that the name has been stolen and defiled. The Chancellor House that is run from inside this building could not be further from the original Chancellor House. It bears no resemblance to the firm of Mandela and Tambo. And it has nothing to do with freedom, justice and equality.

The Chancellor House inside this building is the exact opposite of all those things. This Chancellor House is all about shady deals, massive corruption and enrichment of the ANC elite. It is an insult to the legacy of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo and it is an insult to the struggle for freedom.

They think by calling themselves Chancellor House Holdings they are somehow invoking the memory and the legacy of struggle heroes. But Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo fought for the rights of ordinary South Africans. The people inside this building care only about themselves.

You see, the Chancellor House here in this building was set up by the ANC for one purpose only: to make them lots of money. And not by competing fairly on a level playing field. Chancellor House was created for the sole purpose of using its influence in the ANC to win massive state contracts for the companies it teamed up with.

At first the ANC tried to deny that Chancellor House was in fact their own front company, but eventually they were forced to admit this. Then the companies that went into dirty business with Chancellor House tried to deny that they knew they were dealing with an ANC front, but those claims have also now been exposed as lies.

It took a District Court in the USA to unravel this web of lies in a damning court ruling that explained exactly how a massive Eskom contract was rigged to make money for the ANC.

Chancellor House would seek out “investment opportunities” where the state was handing out mega-contracts, and then team up with what would turn out to be the winning bidders. Easy money for the bidding company and easy money for the ANC.

Chancellor House knew that any company that wanted the multi-billion Rand contracts for Eskom’s Medupi and Kusile power plants would need BEE partners. And so they offered their influence in the ANC in exchange for kickbacks totalling hundreds of millions of Rands.

In 2006, Hitachi Power Africa sold a 25% stake in the company to Chancellor House. Less than a year later, Eskom awarded a R38.5 billion contract to install boilers at Medupi and Kusile to Hitachi. As 25% shareholders in the company, Chancellor House – and therefore the ANC – made millions out of this deal.

There is nothing subtle about this business. It is corruption in black and white. Chancellor House is nothing more than a money laundering front for a shameless and morally bankrupt ANC.

All of these details are listed in the American court ruling, which also spells out the many dirty relationships between Eskom, Chancellor House and the ANC.

This includes an administrator of Chancellor House Trust who sat on the ANC’s National Executive Committee.

This includes an administrator of Chancellor House Trust who served as a director of Eskom Enterprises.

And this includes the chairperson of Eskom, Valli Moosa, who sat on the ANC’s National Executive Committee, co-owned an investment company with the Chancellor House Trust chairperson and also served on the ANC’s fundraising committee.

The term “conflict of interest” doesn’t even come close to describing these relationships.

There is a clear nexus of corruption between the ANC, Chancellor House and Eskom. Of course the ANC is now trying hard to spin themselves out of this mess, but the whole world has seen them in broad daylight with their hands in the cookie jar. There is no explanation that will make any of this go away.

The fact that Hitachi paid a $19 million settlement to the US Security Exchange Commission is an admission of their guilt. And they can’t be guilty on their own. To be guilty of corruption, they must have corrupted someone else. And that someone else is the ANC.

Sometimes people come up to me and say: Why should this matter to me? What difference does it make who the government steals from, or how much they steal?

And my answer is: It makes all the difference.

Corruption is the enemy of democracy and costs all South Africans dearly. Every single time someone in government breaks the rules to make money out of a crooked deal, it affects each and every citizen in this country. Corruption steals money straight out of the budgets meant for service delivery, for houses, for grants, for teaching, for hospitals, for fighting crime.

When governments are known to be corrupt – as the ANC clearly is – investors simply take their money elsewhere. Corruption ruins economies, it chases business away and it kills any hope of creating jobs.

But this specific case of corruption between the ANC, Eskom and Hitachi had another direct influence on the lives of ordinary people. In order to make money for the ANC, the contract had to be given to the company who would pay the kickbacks, and not necessarily the company who could do the job.

The power stations at Medupi and Kusile have now run almost two years late and R60 billion over budget. And this is mostly because of construction faults on the boilers installed by Hitachi.

So the company that paid the ANC hundreds of millions of Rands to win a multi-billion Rand tender is the same company whose faults and delays have plunged us into an electricity crisis.

Load-shedding has cost our economy hundreds of billions of Rands and has cost thousands of South Africans their jobs. So the next time the ANC expresses their concern about unemployment and poverty in South Africa, just remember how much money they made out of this tragic situation.

The DA will not let this go. I will not let this go. If we are to have any chance at all of turning our economy around and creating millions of jobs, we are going to have to stamp out corruption.

I have laid charges with SAPS against Chancellor House and I have referred it to the Special Investigating Unit. I have written to the Public Protector and requested that she investigate the awarding of the Eskom tender. And I have written to the World Bank, who funded the Hitachi deal with a loan, and they have agreed to investigate.

My final request is to the ANC: If you won’t stop committing corruption and money laundering through your front company, Chancellor House, then at least give up the name. Doing your dirty business under a name that belongs to the struggle and to the legacies of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, is disrespectful and offensive.

We will not allow you to steal at will from the people of South Africa. And we will not allow you to steal the proud legacies of struggle heroes and twist these to suit your self-serving agendas.

Give back the money. Give back the name. And then step aside and make way for a government that will put the people of South Africa first.

Amandla!

Statement issued by Graham Charters, Acting Spokesperson to the DA Leader

These remarks were made today by DA Leader, Mmusi Maimane MP at a mass rally outside Chancellor House Holdings in Sandton, Johannesburg, in protest of the flagrant abuse of public funds by the ANC, and the devastating effect it is having on South Africa.