Former president Thabo Mbeki once lamented what he saw as the swelling of the ANC’s ranks with “imigodoyi”. (Photo by ALEXANDER JOE/AFP)
FAnother president Thabo Mbeki once lamented what he saw as the swelling of the ANC’s ranks with “imigodoyi”. Most of the audience laughed and applauded – more in awe and wonder at the man’s inventive mind than at the substance and implications of what he had just said.
Conceptually, imigodoyi refers to people who are actually criminals and always act in a way that is meant to advance their agenda rather than for the good of society. In the context of the ANC, and specifically related to Mbeki’s thesis on imigodoyi, these are people who join or affiliate with the party not because they are eager to pursue the historical mission of social and economic transformation and progress, but because they want to use it. proximity to, or control of, state power and resources in pursuit of the selfish end of accumulating wealth.
Obviously this is not good for the state and, in fact, it has led to a gradual, but systemic, failure of the public service to perform its role as envisioned in the Constitution.
It is certainly not true that the problem of corruption and failure of public service is only for the government, although it is often the case. The private sector is also to blame. Indeed, agents of government and private companies often interface to determine how they will fleece the state.
For example, when I interacted with a contractor doing road maintenance for the Giyani Raya Municipality in Limpopo, he was sad because he thought he would not bid for the tender because he could not get the profit he wanted.
When examining why they were not able to generate as much profit as they wanted, the man said that politicians in the municipality asked for a percentage of the contract price as a precondition for awarding the contract. He said this forced him to use cheap or inadequate materials resulting in shoddy work. In addition, they still need to pay workers and meet other input costs.
Clearly, this shows that corruption increases the cost of doing business. The above example explains why the South African government cannot deliver sustainable infrastructure projects, complete them on time or deliver them at all. Unfortunately, this is not only limited to the municipalities mentioned above but also spread to many states across the country and of course at other levels of government.
In addition, the corruption that plagued Eskom is an important example of how the problem of corruption is not limited to countries and institutions. There are stories that some contractors working on power plants deliberately destroy the infrastructure in order to keep working.
When it took political power in 1994, the ANC declared its intention to plan and direct socio-economic transformation. However, the only instruments to achieve transformation are the public and parastatal services, as they cannot rely on the white-dominated private sector. Over the years, the imigodoyi problem has emasculated this instrument, meaning that the imperative of social transformation cannot be achieved using public services and parastatals. It’s a sad situation.
The imigodoyi also use cruel methods to remove obstacles in their path. The stories of whistleblowers who were killed because they believed they had damaging information about imigodoyi affairs in the country show the lengths to which they are prepared to eliminate threats to corrupt and criminal activities.
The highly publicized story of the murder of Babita Deokaran, an official working in the Gauteng government health department, who was killed because she was a key witness in the investigation of the Special Investigation Unit on the misuse of funds intended to fight the Covid 19 pandemic, is one example of how cruel imigodoyi can be.
What is surprising is that some of the people who were irregularly awarded tenders to supply personal protective equipment to the department, as part of efforts to fight the pandemic, are ruling ANC leaders or people associated with them. This case makes clear the frightening relationship between the ruling party and imigodoyi and many others. The killing of a whistleblower by imigodoyi has struck fear in the hearts of others who would want to expose corrupt dealings in the organization.
In the final analysis, South Africans must wonder whether the problem of imigodoyi is confined to the ANC or has spread to society as a whole. I’m afraid it’s the latter.
The ANC’s political dominance since the dawn of democracy, particularly due to its electoral preponderance, meant that some toxic cultures would spread beyond the party’s institutional responsibilities and into society. Thus, a moral cleansing that transcends politics, and encompasses society, is needed for the rebirth of South Africa.
Rich Mashimbye is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation, University of Johannesburg.