Protecting tainted officials comes with a terrible cost

Appointing tainted people to high office, or redeploying hopelessly compromised individuals to senior public posts, has been turned into a fine art by our political leaders.

Secure in its commanding parliamentary majority, the ANC frequently chooses, when scandal breaks around a flawed public-office bearer, to close ranks and brazen it out - until the courts force its hand.

As a result of this tactic we were forced to endure a bent police commissioner, a dodgy communications minister and a compromised electoral chief for far too long.

Of course, such unconstitutional behaviour on the part of the government carries the risk of humiliation in court, as we saw after President Jacob Zuma insisted on appointing Menzi Simelane national director of public prosecutions in 2009, even though Simelane's conduct and integrity had been severely criticised by the Ginwala Commission.

The Supreme Court of Appeal found that the appointment was ''unconstitutional'' and ''irrational'', and therefore invalid.

Confirming this verdict, the Constitutional Court raised questions about Simelane's ''conscientiousness, integrity and credibility''.

The man was fired but the damage done to the NPA was incalculable.

Flushed with success after the ANC's crushing election victory in April, Zuma shrugged off the embarrassment of the Simelane debacle. His new communications minister, Faith Muthambi, brazenly appointed Hlaudi Motsoeneng as chief operations officer of the SABC despite the public protector's finding that he had lied about having a matric and had abused his powers.

In another victory for constitutionalism, the High Court in Cape Town ordered on Friday that Motsoeneng be suspended pending a disciplinary inquiry. Expect the case to go all the way to Constitution Hill.

Protecting tainted officials might make political sense to the ruling party but it comes with a terrible cost: the steady erosion of trust in important public institutions.