The Big Read: Pallo puzzles the party

19 August 2014 - 02:00 By Justice Malala
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SABC board chairman Ellen Tshabalala had a BCom degree from the University of South Africa and a postgraduate degree in Labour Relations, but Unisa denied Tshabalala was awarded a degree. Parliament has instituted proceedings to suspend her with immediate effect over allegations that she lied to the institution about her qualifications. File photo
SABC board chairman Ellen Tshabalala had a BCom degree from the University of South Africa and a postgraduate degree in Labour Relations, but Unisa denied Tshabalala was awarded a degree. Parliament has instituted proceedings to suspend her with immediate effect over allegations that she lied to the institution about her qualifications. File photo
Image: PUXLEY MAKGATHO

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe was almost beautiful last week as he accepted Pallo Jordan's resignation from parliament. Jordan had on numerous occasions claimed that he has a doctorate when in fact he does not.

Mantashe said: "A man of Comrade Pallo's intellect does not need to perpetuate deceit. He must be given time to deal with his guilt. As the ANC, we have accepted his public apology. To apologise was not an action of the faint-hearted."

Spare me the hypocrisy. The problem with the Jordan matter is that, in the rump of the ANC, the man is a hero, not a zero. Virtually every wing of the organisation elbowed the others out of the way to laud him as a great intellectual.

He lied about his qualifications. That's wrong, fraudulent, and ethically and morally reprehensible.

The one laudable thing about Jordan is that he displayed something very rare in the ANC these days. He did something wrong, he felt - it seems deeply - a sense of shame, and he fell on his sword for it. We don't see that often enough these days.

That is what is so galling about Mantashe's words. Why is Jordan such a hero for falling on his sword but the SABC chairman, Ellen Tshabalala, is allowed by an ANC board (sorry, I meant an SABC board) and ANC communications minister to continue in this pivotal position?

Tshabalala was exposed by the City Press newspaper for claiming to have a bachelor of commerce degree from Unisa. She doesn't have one. It has been more than a month since she was exposed. Has the ANC said a word? No.

By the way, she also allegedly lied about a post-graduate certificate in labour.

Will she go soon? Not at all. She is in her position to buttress the vandalising and stripping of the SABC of whatever semblance of a public broadcaster it still has.

Should Tshabalala have a B Com? I really don't care if she can do her job. I care deeply that she lied to parliament and to the nation about her qualifications. That is a criminal offence. It is called fraud. She is drawing a fat board fee at the SABC, I can tell you that, and she won't go to jail.

That is not the extent of the rot. Tshabalala has appointed Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the SABC's chief operating officer. Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that he lied to the SABC when he claimed that he has a matric certificate. An ANC minister, Faith Muthambi, has not only approved the appointment but has decided to waste our money by defending her ludicrous decision in court.

Where is the ANC when its own minister brings the party into disrepute like this? Where is the ANC when one part of this proud organisation - the Mantashe part - proclaims loudly that it is honourable and right to take responsibility for one's actions and fall on one's sword, while the Muthambi part of the ANC embraces liars and fraudsters whose qualifications are fake?

The truth is what came out of Mantashe's mouth last week was just words. The truth is that the ANC would not have raised a finger against Jordan had he decided to brazen it out. On the same day that Mantashe sang the praises of Jordan, ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani issued a statement in which he said the Jordan matter "has nothing to do with parliament".

If our parliamentarians don't think a fellow MP has not brought the National Assembly into disrepute by acting dishonourably then you can draw your own conclusions: the National Assembly is a den of iniquity, a free-for-all, a joke.

The part of the ANC that retains some appreciation of the concept of honour is slowly dying. In rude good health is an ANC that has no sense of shame. It is an ANC that looks on while every single institution of the state is cowed and used to serve the needs of one family. Land a plane at a national keypoint? Go ahead. Your daughter needs a R1-million a year job but has no experience? Of course. Need a stooge at the SABC? Please, go for it.

These things have not happened because the ANC wants them to happen. They have happened because the ANC has allowed them to happen. This has become the culture of the organisation; it has gripped the state and its bureaucracy. The highest office in South Africa is compromised.

The rot has spread to the rest of our country but it is the leadership that sets the tone in any organisation.

This is something the ANC might want to reflect on when it chooses new leaders in 2017. But I doubt that an organisation that flip-flops so wildly on Pallo Jordan is capable of any kind of reflection.

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