Extract
With election fever in full swing this week, few might have paid attention to the revealing testimony of Transnet board chair Popo Molefe at the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture.
Reported in TimesLIVE, Molefe gives an eye-opening account of the precise mechanisms by which competent people in Transnet were taken out of key decision-making positions. They would then be replaced with “cronies” who had no idea of how to do the actual job but were more than willing to compromise the procurement processes to the benefit of corrupt operators inside and outside the company.
So, for example, an engineer with two decades of experience in Transnet operations came to be replaced by a teacher.
“This election is about competence,” proclaimed the leader of the official opposition in the hours headed into the election.