Cry My Beloved Limpopo

So, I was asked by two friends of mine, Mahlodi and Michelle to write a piece on the nonsense happening in my beloved Limpopo province. Here it is:



I did a google search for news articles surrounding the financial controversy happening in Limpopo. Needless to say, quite a few reports popped up. In these reports I saw mention of some serious misspending on the part of the Limpopo government, some stating that Limpopo was in debt to the tune of R2-3 billion rand, another claiming that three months into the 2011/2012 fiscal year Limpopo's R43 billion rand budget had been spent already! On what?


Now, being from Limpopo I kid you not when I say reading through those reports broke my heart. Heck, having to write this piece is breaking my heart. I say it breaks my heart because I see reports of billions of rands being "spent" by the Limpopo government and yet I cannot for the life of me see where it's gone. It's not gone to education or health care. Granted, there have been some major repair works on some of the main roads through the province (I'll site the R71 from Polokwane to Tzaneen), but other than that, I've not seen any other notable improvements in the province. Certainly to the tune of R43 billion.


Now, the allegation, which the premier and his, erm...colleagues are denying is simple: tenders and money have been given to people who were neither qualified nor capable enough to deliver on the requirements. In short, tenders were being sold for financial kick backs and "loyalty". I can tell you for a fact, because I know someone who runs a legitimate business which requires tenders for revenue in flows, that this is most likely true.


You see, how business was being done in Limpopo went a little something like this: "We, the people in power and in charge of the tender awarding process are hosting a gala dinner to get to know business owners and service providers a bit better. You, as the business owner/operator in the province are invited to this auspicious event. Please take note that should you be unable to attend this event, we will be unable to consider you for any tenders as we don't 'know' you. Oh, and by the way, a seat at the gala is R50 000."


I don't know about you, but this looks like corruption in its purest form to me. Add to that, there are also numerous reports of companies with suspiciously close ties to people involved in the tender awarding process landing a number of major contracts. These two things (with a host of other factors) had a number of knock-on effects.


First, they lined the pockets of government officials. Second, they increased the cost of doing business in the province, causing a lot of ethical businesses to go out of business while rewarding and enriching the less ethical businesses with lucrative tenders. Third, it added to the cost of service delivery, because as any smart business owner knows, you need to factor in ALL of your costs before offering a service price: in practical terms, these so-called government officials were just using thier younger siblings to steal out of the cookie jar. Finally, (for the purposes of this piece), it meant that the service provider selected for the job wasn't always the best of the lot - meaning that the people of Limpopo got sub-par service delivery.


I'll be honest, when I was considering writing this piece, I was going to take a very emotional view on the topic. In short, I was going to say screw the money, it's gone. Throw ALL of those thieving bastards in jail and lose the keys. I still believe that, and I doubt anything will change my mind.


The thing that gets to me the most about this though, is not the fact that these retards managed to rob my province blind, it's the fact that my province not only gave them the power to do it, they sat back and watched! It doesn't do much for the stereotypes about us Limpopians that knowing full well of the corruption happening in the ruling party that they still have a serious majority in the province come election time. This is even worse given that since 1994, they have done squat in that province. I don't get it, it's like a Limpopo-Eastern cape phenomenon, were the people suffer from battered voters syndrome!


I won't say people need to start an uprising and protest and demonstrate and "burn shit down", but mark my words if things don't change and soon, I'll be more surprised if we don't see an uprising than if we do. Because i don't advocate violence as a means to any end, I hope the change comes when we next go to the polls. I hope people wake up and realize that if you vote someone into power, or withhold your vote knowing that they will win power, that's as good as standing back and watching someone beat your child.


To finish off, I will say this, I am a young black man from Limpopo, I have a lot of potential and you'll be sure to hear about me in the future because I'm going to achieve big things in this life time. In Limpopo, I've seen a million other me's with a million times more potential. I just hope our government steps up to fix this mess and afford them the opportunities they were promised all those years ago.