The Saturday Dispatch opinion piece “Managing conflict of interest in the public sector” by seasoned journalist Ray Hartle, proffers a lopsided-view on morality and public interest, especially with regards the case in point.
While breathing life into a dead story, it argues without basis that Oscar Mabuyane and Babalo Madikizela did not consult their African moral compass in agreeing to this loan transaction.
In this skewed commentary, Hartle pins on Mabuyane the obligation to investigate the source of funds for the loan, something we know we don’t do when requesting a loan from family, friend and comrade, no matter the size of the loan.
Hartle continues to peddle the misleading notion that the money in question was fraudulently stolen from the Mbizana municipality, a matter that has been cleared through submission of evidence and with the two parties vehemently denying it.
Despite being the decorated scribe that he is, he omits to verify something so central to his opinion piece and rather relies on a discredited Mail & Guardian article.
Mabuyane collapsed under the weight of the media glare and dashed to the bank and committed to a loan, something he did not desire in the first place, with a view to silencing the negative media sentiment.
Minus the fact that the loan deal was sealed before there could be any possibility of conflict of interest suggested in the opinion piece, Hartle is hellbent on finding both men guilty even though there is no evidence of conflict of interest.
Friends lend each other money every day, for reasons ranging from funding group golf trips to staving away hounding debt collectors.
In this case, the transaction was occasioned by security concerns not even of Mabuyane’s making, with timeframes not dictated by him either.
His safety and that of his family is discounted in the equation as meaning nothing yet it was the trigger for the loan in the first instance.
It is true that Premier Mabuyane played a direct role as part of a collective in the appointment of Madikizela.
Let us look at the leadership precedent set by the ANC in its deployment of cadres to the cabinet. The chairperson of the ANC, as is the case with Mabuyane, is favoured to be premier of the province and his deputy head leads economic development, as has happened with Mlungisi Mvoko. His treasurer heads public works which is the case with Madikizela. This has been the case at least since the 4th administration. No matter how Mabuyane felt about Madikizela it would not have had any bearing on the outcome of him being appointed MEC of Public Works.
If the interest of the piece was to deal with morality and ethics then Hartle would have been forced to revisit African ethics and look closely into common sense morality which guides relationships among family, friends and comrades.
The relationship that Mabuyane has with Madikizela is an essential part of their identity and a distinctive sense of who they are and have come to represent as comrades and contemporaries. So it was easy to borrow from a comrade and friend rather than commercial banks because of their co-existence as comrades in an ecosystem laced with trust and loyalty.
And for this reason, theintroduction of Lonwabo Bam who then paid the money to East London draughtsman Allan Morran has little or no consequence on Mabuyane, who has a formidable relationship with Madikizela.
Putting a bank loan and a loan from a friend at the same level by Hartle is a red herring and mischievous at best.
In the wake of the allegations, Mabuyane hounded the ANC’s integrity commission and voluntarily reported the matter.
This is a first in the ANC since the establishment of the said commission.
This part for the writer counts for zero in his morality score.
In African morality and ethics, it is immoral to deny or withhold ubuntu to a person.
Madikizela felt that charity begins at home and the task of making available a loan facility for a comrade was effortless.
Unlike in the case of Hartle, in African morals, we are duty-bound to avoid myopia and are compelled to discharge moral sensitivity and sensibility.
Madikizela displayed his moral virtue in this case.
There is a yawning chasm between Eurocentric and African notions of moral thought. The Eurocentric moral compass favours unbridled individualism. An African journalist not understanding this basic tenet of our existence in this day and age cannot be attributed to ignorance alone but surely to a deep-rooted distance in type of socialisation.
lLuthando Bara is the president of the Black Business Forum. He writes in his personal capacity.
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