ROB ROSE: We bribed nobody, says CPS
As a society, we often leap to the conclusion that somebody was paid off when the truth is probably that numbskulls were calling the shots
Net1 UEPS is often depicted — even, on occasion, unfairly — as the unacceptable face of modern SA capitalism. But CEO Serge Belamant makes a profound point when asked what is motivating the baffling ineptitude of social development minister Bathabile Dlamini. It is this ineptitude — doing zip to appoint any other company to distribute grants to 17m people every month, despite a constitutional court order in 2014 ordering it to do just this — that has led many to ask why Dlamini so desperately wants Net1’s subsidiary, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), to keep the contract. Why? Unless money has changed hands, they say. Belamant argues that South Africans are quick to assume someone has been paid off when the reason for their behaviour is often rather more mundane.“There is something else that is more powerful than corruption: stupidity. You should never look for something that might not be there; first look at whether someone is making a decision because they don’t know what they’re doi...
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