Politicians are civil servants and are not meant to benefit from earning huge salaries yet we see the likes of Pelosi through insider trading benefitting from their positions. Being a politician is a way of benefitting from the position you hold and it does not matter what country you are in this is happening. The one Chinese politician found out recently after being caught for corruption he was executed with no fancy trials. This is how the justice system should work as these people work for the people and the majority elected are looking at how to steal from the people.
Nothing highlights corruption more than seeing the size of politicians wallets and knowing they came from nothing not that long ago. None of the ANC cabinet or leaders had any wealth back in 1994 and today many are filthy rich at the expense of their people. The laws and regulations they created benefitted themselves and not surprising Ramaphosa was at the head of the queue pushing for BEE which is Black Economic Empowerment. Designed to benefit those who had been disadvantaged by the system this was meant to benefit the people and ended up benefitting only those in government positions.
I was reading an article not that long ago that showed how 1000 families had benefitted from the BEE regulations to the tune of R7 trillion. Those 1000 families are obviously all connected and are all going to be connected to the ANC government in some form or other. Call it an extended family of corruption because this is exactly what has been happening for the last 31 years.
Many thought that when Ramaphosa became the State President that corruption would slow down because he was already wealthy and did not need to steal himself. How stupid to even think this was a possibility knowing this is all he has done since 1994 and that he would suddenly change when he became the leader.
31 years is not that long and for Ramaphosa to have bagged R6.4 Billion he averages out at R17 million ($1 million) monthly for the 31 year period. This is what BEE does for someone who is connected and why none of the officials are going to back down from removing BEE as this is too lucrative for themselves.
When Musk was talking about Starlink coming to South Africa it was obvious why Ramaphosa met up with Musk in New York. Ramaphosa wanted Starlink for himself and Musk was having none of that and stood his ground refusing to hand over 30 percent.
When we look at Ramaphosa's portfolio on what he owns this has all come about from the positions he held and not being a smart businessman. MacDonalds franchise in SA was through BEE, Standard Bank 2% shareholding was down to BEE, MTN (telecoms) was all BEE. He started a company called The Shanduka Group which is his, but hides him away from direct deals. The Shanduka group specializes in tech and communications so no wonder he was so excited to see Musk.
Looking further down the list the uneducated Jacob Zuma having a wealth of R290 million knowing how much was stolen I would say this valuation is light and he has far more. His cronies removed so much money the country never recovered and was so bad it was called State Capture.
The one that stands out is Gwede Mantashe who is the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources with his portfolio being very important. Loadshedding has been blamed on incompetence and corruption and yes this plays a role but behind the scenes those supplying the diesel to run the grid which happened for months on end were the ones making the money. They say follow the money to find out the reasons and this man is the reason for load shedding.
I know this chart states these figures are estimated and I would say these are all very low to the real wealth these thieves have accumulated. The hope is over the next few weeks or months the Senate votes against AGOA agreement and Trump imposes sanctions on these top government officials freezing their offshore assets. This topic was raised in July 2025 which will be raised again over the coming months especially with the SA Navy doing a practice exercise with China, Russia and Iran two weeks ago.