LETTER: Deeply flawed Ramaphosa is not the leader SA needs
The president orders commissions of inquiry while corrupt politicians and businessmen walk free
The historian Edward Gibbon, who penned The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, said one of the reasons for the fall was the lack of “civic virtue”. The Caesars pursued policies that went against the behaviour important for the success of the community. “History is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind,” Gibbon wrote. SA is now facing the consequences of a gross lack of civility — including the looting of VBS bank by ANC bigwigs — with perfect imperviousness, a perjured minister in the cabinet and a public protector who is so inept and compromised. In commerce, a CEO and his executive team remain free after the worst fraudulent misrepresentation of financial statements since Enron. In the US, the chair and CEO of Enron were handcuffed and marched out of their office suites within a week of their misdeeds being uncovered. SA’s president is forced to resort to costly commissions of inquiry to justify any action against his party’s a...
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