Business part of 'unholy triangle'

"They need to realise that if they continue to play their part in the criminalisation of the state, that one day soon there will not be a viable state left to do business in," she says in her weekly online letter to her supporters circulated on Friday. "Even worse, there will no longer be a viable and open economy within which to do business."

Zille said in her letter that there was an unholy triangle at work, the three corners of which represented business, the state and the ruling party.

Connecting these corners were the cadres that the ANC deployed to the state and to business. "These cadres ensure that they and their cronies benefit from state tenders as well as black economic empowerment (BEE) deals in the private sector which they help 'facilitate'," she said.

She added that the ANC's version of BEE had nothing to do with the much- needed empowerment of black South Africans to use the opportunities emerging in a non-racial, open society. It had been perverted for the benefit of a small clique in the ruling party and its business partners, who were usually deployed party insiders, and who in turn must pay their dues back to the party and its leaders.

Zille said BEE's cover had now been blown wide open by revelations of how the ANC's investment arm, Chancellor House, operated. "We have seen that through Chancellor House, the ANC stood to benefit from multibillion-rand tenders awarded by Eskom for the building of new power stations," she explained "This was taxpayers' money that was destined for the ruling party's coffers until Eskom reneged on the deal after it was exposed."

'Implications will be devastating'

Then last weekend, she recalled, it emerged that R9m of a R1.5bn empowerment deal, involving Standard Bank, Liberty Life and asset managers Stanlib, was channelled directly into the ANC's bank account by former ANC MP turned businessman, Saki Macozoma.

"These reports follow outgoing ANC treasurer general, Mendi Msimang's candid admission at Polokwane that ANC members are being deployed to big business in return for a 'levy' paid to the ANC. The heart of the corruption, in terms of Msimang's admission, is that the ANC decides which 'cadre' should be deployed to a specific company. Business accepts the deployee, who in turn pays his dues to the ANC."

The ANC's "cadre deployment" policy had led to a collapse of the distinction between the party and the state, Zille wrote. "Cadre deployment, as described so candidly by Msimang, is now also leading to a collapse of the distinction between the party and business.

"And the implications will be devastating. No country can remain an open society if business opportunities are increasingly determined by a relationship with the ruling clique of the governing party."

Zille remarks that it was astonishing how complicit business appeared to be in this institutionalised corruption. More worrying was that many businesses seemed to see nothing wrong with such practices. "It has become the norm, it is business as usual," she said.

'For every corruptee there is a corruptor'

"Certain businessmen have indicated to members of my party that representatives of Chancellor House routinely approach them with the offer of facilitating contracts, tenders and other deals on their behalf.

"The understanding is that the ANC's influence will secure the deal, in both the public and private sector, in exchange for a handsome payoff to the ANC, through Chancellor House.

"While one must be very careful not to generalise about the complicity of business, it has to be said that for every corruptee there is a corruptor. What we are seeing emerge before our eyes is a 'generally corrupt' relationship between business, the ANC and the state.

"I wonder whether major companies like Standard Bank and Liberty Life, and many, many others, have asked themselves about the damage that these practices inflict on South Africa's chances of consolidating and sustaining democracy.

"Do they realise that these practices are helping South Africa down the fatal path of destruction that begins with centralisation and inevitably proceeds to cronyism, corruption and criminalisation? Do they realise that this will ensure the demise of the constitution's vision of an open society?

"Or does much of big business only worry about the contacts that will oil the next big deal? Have they learned any lessons from South Africa's tragic past, or from the demise of the democratic vision in countries further north?"