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Trade union Solidarity today strongly condemned the ANC’s alleged awarding of contracts to individuals and companies with strong political ties in exchange for unlawful payments.

This comes in the wake of recent speculation that Japanese company Hitachi had made improper payments worth millions of rands to the ANC in order to be awarded a contract for the supply of boilers to Eskom. Moreover, the ANC evaded recent questions in Parliament about Eskom’s contract for the supply of coal with the controversial Gupta family.

According to Dr Eugene Brink, senior researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute, it is clear that the ANC regards corrupt bribes as more important than a healthy economy and proper service delivery to the country’s citizens. “Tax money worth millions of rands is wasted in the process. In addition, the economy suffers as a result of the unreliable supply of electricity and poor service delivery that can be ascribed to incompetent individuals who had obtained contracts unlawfully, deriving excessive financial benefit from it, and who then offer products of a poor quality,” Brink said.

Solidarity has expressed its concern about the quality of the coal delivered to Eskom by the Guptas. “Should the quality of the coal prove inadequate, Eskom would not be able to meet the country’s electricity needs and load shedding would be reinstated. Ultimately, businesses and industries – and of course the economy – would suffer. Moreover, it has already come to light that the boilers which Hitachi delivered to Eskom were substandard,” Brink said.

Brink added that this form of grand corruption was on the increase. “President Zuma’s cabinet make-up is increasingly being dictated by a single consideration: protection of crooked operations. For instance, the controversial Mosebenzi Zwane, despite his close ties with the Guptas, was still appointed as the new Minister of Mineral Resources.”

Issued by Solidarity