South African Covid-19 News and Discussions 2

[Paulsie]

Just to bad the government doesn't follow their own rules especially when it comes to emergency PPE supplies.

Or submitting tax returns, being audit compliant, adhering to health and safety, adhering to environmental health laws, operating without license, andherimg to basic conditions of employment, adhering to no public gathering, social distancing, only family at funeral rules..................................

 

[TheChamp]

There's plenty of rules about how tenders should be awarded. Just to bad the government doesn't follow their own rules especially when it comes to emergency PPE supplies. Because it's an emergency and all that...

Is there anywhere in the rules where friends and family of government people are prohibited from bidding for government tenders?

 

[pinball wizard]

Don't our NCCCCC cunts claim to follow UN guidelines?

Coronavirus and its restrictions are pushing already hungry communities over the edge, killing an estimated 10,000 more young children a month as meagre farms are cut off from markets and villages are isolated from food and medical aid, the United Nations warned Monday.

...

“By having schools closed, by having primary health care services disrupted, by having nutritional programs dysfunctional, we are also creating harm,” Aguayo said. He cited as an example the near-global suspension of Vitamin A supplements, which are a crucial way to bolster developing immune systems.

https://www.france24.com/en/2020072...unger-kills-10-000-children-per-month-says-un

 

[noxibox]

Is there anywhere in the rules where friends and family of government people are prohibited from bidding for government tenders?

If there aren't there should be.

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

If there aren't there should be.

There is. On my phone now. Will try find it in a few

 

[noxibox]

Sure they are, just like tobacco ban was only for 3 weeks while batsa and co 'negotiate' and back down from court
Lessons learnt from lockdown...
Never trust a commie
Never negotiate with a commie

BATSA are commies?

I have no idea how the calculation works but would think that, based on the data available (if it is reasonably accurate or not is a different question) that while the number of active cases (people who can spread the virus) have come down recently, the number of new cases per day have not gone down as quickly or stabalised at a higher level casing the Rt to increase (as one spreader need to infect more people to maintain a stable new active cases number).

As I said, I have no idea how the calculation works so this is just a logical guess.

I wonder how they take into account the tendency for it to spread in clusters. That is most people don't infect anyone else, but rather a minority of those infected are the source of the majority of new infections.

 

[TheChamp]

If there aren't there should be.

Yes, that's pretty much what I said in my earlier post.

 

[TheChamp]

There is. On my phone now. Will try find it in a few

I would honestly be very surprised if it stretches as far as prohibiting a family of friend of someone in Khusela's position from bidding for a tender at some provincial or local government. It most probably talks about those who are in the tender awarding committee, I doubt even the MEC Bandile is included.

That is where the problem is and should be addressed there once and for all, clearly depending on people to acknowledge the perception of conflict of interest is not working.

 

[Gordon_R]

I wonder how they take into account the tendency for it to spread in clusters. That is most people don't infect anyone else, but rather a minority of those infected are the source of the majority of new infections.

Rt is supposed to be an average measure of all past infections, and independent of the transmission mechanism(s). Clusters, travel-restrictions, lockdowns, schools, and masks are all relevant factors, but not directly related to the total numbers.

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

I would honestly be very surprised if it stretches as far as prohibiting a family of friend of someone in Khusela's position from bidding for a tender at some provincial or local government. It most probably talks about those who are in the tender awarding committee, I doubt even the MEC Bandile is included.

That is where the problem is and should be addressed there once and for all, clearly depending on people to acknowledge the perception of conflict of interest is not working.

I think you're right and I stand corrected. It seems as long as you declare that you are family or friends, then the acts allow it

 

[R13...]

Is there anywhere in the rules where friends and family of government people are prohibited from bidding for government tenders?

I don't think there's prohibition for friends and family doing business with government. The conditions are that if you family, friend, associate, crony, whatever is bidding for work they cannot do so where you have an influence or potential to have an influence. And you are as a government official required to recuse yourself in a case where you must evaluate a bid. Unfortunately it seems most of our officials and politicians are about the letter and never the spirit. So they'll have their buddies push their friends and families. They also give the tender specs to their friends and families or even as is the case with these COVID tenders tell them of the loop holes for making lots of money quickly.

They write the regulations and would do so in a way where they insert loopholes they fully intend to exploit. You'd think decades of corruption and exploitation of the same loopholes would have taught government to put in controls but no. The AG bemoans lack of controls year after year and nothing ever happens. It will not because it benefits the politicians and officials in charge of ensuring loopholes are close, so they'll of course never do anything because there are no consequences.

 

[TheChamp]

So what is required to tighten the laws? The governing party is obviously benefitting from the status quo and won't mind but I don't see any opposition party making too much noise about this, unless they also don't want to shoot themselves in the foot one day when they have some municipality or province under their control.

 

[Arzy]

Irrespective of how much you change the law our government will find a way to work around it in order to enrich themselves. It is simply the way they operate.

A methodology needs to be found where just 50% of the effort the cronies put in to steal is channeled into actual work. We'll be about 741% better off as a country than we are now.

 

[RedViking]

No amount of laws can make corrupt and evil people do good.

 

[rietrot]

I think you're right and I stand corrected. It seems as long as you declare that you are family or friends, then the acts allow it

In theory the best person gets the job and this soundn't matter who they are related to.

We've had this tender discussion before.

In practice it is not the best person, everyone is corrupt and the nephew that got the job has no idea what he is doing. If we are really lucky as taxpayers he at least inflated the price enough to get some contractors in that can actually do the job.

 

[Geoff.D]

But there seems to be a problem when it comes to government tenders, I don't think there's a law that prohibits friends and family from government tenders, if we want to stand a chance on this fight against corruption that's where we should start, the reactive manner of waiting for someone to get a tender and then wasting time and money investigating is not going to get us anywhere.

The long term goal should be to totally abolish tenders on useless services that government can do.

Tenders is NOT the problem, outsourcing is where the issue lies.

 

[MiW]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1288582099348398080

 

[IceyQ]

But there seems to be a problem when it comes to government tenders, I don't think there's a law that prohibits friends and family from government tenders, if we want to stand a chance on this fight against corruption that's where we should start, the reactive manner of waiting for someone to get a tender and then wasting time and money investigating is not going to get us anywhere.

The long term goal should be to totally abolish tenders on useless services that government can do.

Yes, there is no hard rule on nepotism within given tenders or jobs to family and friends. Reform should happen here. Politicians are literally only uplifting themselves when they could be spreading the wealth they so badly want everyone else to spread.

 

[Temujin]

High court dismisses DA’s application to appeal criteria ruling in Covid-19 relief

Judges say the party was asking the court to approach the country in a ‘colour-blind fashion’

www.businesslive.co.za

Judge president Dunstan Mlambo and judges Norman Davis and Daisy Molefe on Wednesday suggested that the DA — by stressing that the Disaster Management Act did not explicitly require the government to consider SA’s historical inequalities in responding to disasters — was asking the court to approach the country “in a colour-blind fashion” that ran counter to the constitution.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Health MEC Bandile Masuku and wife Loyiso asked to 'step aside' amid corruption probe | News24

The ANC in Gauteng has asked Health MEC Bandile Masuku and his wife, City of Johannesburg MMC Loyiso Masuku to “step aside."

www.news24.com

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1288758351057362945