2019年经济学人 南非新任总统是否能带来光亮时刻(2)

 

Noone doubts that Mr. Ramaphosa sincerely wishes to uprootcorruption. And his hiring of honest cops and prosecutors¹ is an essential step in that direction. But he will struggle unless he also tackles some of the underlying² enablers of graft³. One problem is that many in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) believe that the party should control all the levers of power, and that the government should control “strategic” sectors⁴ such as powerplants, railways and ports.

拉马福萨根除腐败的诚心毋庸置疑。雇佣诚信的警察和检察官是朝这个方向迈出的重要一步。但除非根除腐败的背后因素，否则接下来将举步维艰。一个问题是，执政党非洲人国民大会中的许多人认为，该党应该控制所有的权力杠杆，政府应该控制发电厂、铁路和港口等“战略性”行业。

Atradition of “deploying” party loyalists to run state-owned firms transmogrified, under Mr Zuma, into a habit of planting cronies into positions that enabled them to steal. The leftists in the governing coalition⁵ still say South Africa needs a “developmental” state to steer⁶ investment. In fact, state interference has repelled⁷ investment. By one estimate, had Mr Zuma been a benign⁸ steward⁹, the economy would be 25% bigger.

在祖玛领导下，“部署”党的忠诚分子经营国有企业，已经改变了南非的习惯，即在让他们在关键位置上任人唯亲。执政联盟中的左翼人士仍表示，南非需要“发展型”国家来引导投资。而事实上，政府的干预阻碍了投资。据估计，如果祖玛是一位好的领导人，南非经济将会增长25%。

Mr Ramaphosa plans to split Eskom into generation, distribution and transmission businesses to make it clearer which bits are losing money. He should go further. The state should not be generating power at all. It should break up and sell Eskom, and regulate the companies that buy it. The same goes for the state firms that run airports, fly planes and dig up diamonds.

拉马福萨计划将Eskom的业务拆分为发电、分销和传输，以明确哪些业务正在亏损。他应该走得更远。国家根本就不应发电。而应拆分并出售Eskom，并监管买方。经营机场、驾驶飞机和开采钻石的国有企业也是如此。

There is a risk that privatisation could be corrupted¹⁰. State assets could be transferred cheaply and opaquely¹¹ to ANC bigwigs claiming to promote “black economic empowerment”, just as private assets have been in the past. However, this risk can be mitigated¹² if assets are sold via transparent¹³ auctions¹⁴ and the markets thus created are regulated properly. Also, consumers will have to start paying their electricity bills, something many have grown used to avoiding. If Mr Ramaphosa wants to be remembered as the president who turned the lights back on, he will need to harness the power of the market.

私有化存在腐败的风险。国有资产可以廉价而不透明地转移给非国大的权贵们，并声称要促进“黑人经济赋权”，正如过去的私有财产。然而，如果通过透明拍卖出售资产，并对由此创建的市场进行适当监管，可以缓解这种风险。此外，消费者将不得不开始支付电费，而很多人早就习惯了不交电费。如果拉马福萨希望人民记住他作为总统为大家打开了灯，那么将需要利用市场的力量。

1 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

2 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

3 graft   

n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接

参考例句：

• I am having a skin graft on my arm soon.我马上就要接受手臂的皮肤移植手术。
• The minister became rich through graft.这位部长透过贪污受贿致富。

4 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

6 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

7 repelled   

v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开

参考例句：

• They repelled the enemy. 他们击退了敌军。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The minister tremulously, but decidedly, repelled the old man's arm. 而丁梅斯代尔牧师却哆里哆嗦地断然推开了那老人的胳臂。 来自英汉文学 - 红字

8 benign   

adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的

参考例句：

• The benign weather brought North America a bumper crop.温和的气候给北美带来大丰收。
• Martha is a benign old lady.玛莎是个仁慈的老妇人。

9 steward   

n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员

参考例句：

• He's the steward of the club.他是这家俱乐部的管理员。
• He went around the world as a ship's steward.他当客船服务员，到过世界各地。

10 corrupted   

（使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏

参考例句：

• The body corrupted quite quickly. 尸体很快腐烂了。
• The text was corrupted by careless copyists. 原文因抄写员粗心而有讹误。

11 opaquely   

adv.不透明地，无光泽地

参考例句：

• He referred opaquely to her recent past. 他含混不清地说到了她的近况。 来自互联网
• A string which opaquely encodes various aspects about a machine's operating system, hardware, and kernel attributes. 字符串，对机器的操作系统，硬件，和内核属性进行隐意编码。 来自互联网

12 mitigated   

v.减轻，缓和( mitigate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The cost of getting there is mitigated by Sydney's offer of a subsidy. 由于悉尼提供补助金，所以到那里的花费就减少了。 来自辞典例句
• The living conditions were slightly mitigated. 居住条件稍有缓解。 来自辞典例句

13 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

14 auctions   

n.拍卖，拍卖方式( auction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They picked up most of the furniture at auctions in country towns. 他们大部分的家具都是在乡村镇上的拍卖处买的。 来自辞典例句
• Our dealers didn't want these cars, so we had to dump them at auctions. 我们的承销商都不要这些车子，因此我们只好贱价拍卖。 来自辞典例句