Kaizer Kganyago. Zweli Mkhize. Cyril Ramaphosa. The Special Investigating Unit. The ANC. The Hawks. The DA. Personal protective equipment corruption. The EFF. Ace Magashule. This jumbled list just about sums up the key issue in the upcoming municipal polls — credibility.
Kganyago may not be a mayoral candidate for any party, but the work he does in positioning the SIU as a key component in the country’s fight against corruption has placed him front and centre of South African conversations.
For the ANC government, he is a key figure in communicating what the government is doing to fight corruption. Each time he opens his mouth or is quoted, as he was on TimesLIVE several times this week, explaining the downfall of former health minister and ANC national treasurer Zweli Mkhize, many nod for different reasons.
The EFF and the DA will nod as Kganyago speaks because what he says confirms deep-rooted ANC corruption and, importantly for them, the reason the ANC must be removed from power. They will hear from Kganyago how brazen ministers have become, uninhibited by shame, lying through their teeth to justify the little islands of prosperity they create for themselves while the poor majority live in abject poverty, assuaged through the R350 stipend that is still below the poverty line of R624.
The state was looted; no, wait, robbed daylight of money that was supposed to be used to benefit the poor and given to shady businessmen and politicians.
Each time Kganyago speaks, they will say the corruption we see today in personal protective equipment, among others, is no different to large-scale looting that took place under the administration before Ramaphosa. Different president, the same corruption!
Ramaphosa and his ANC comrades will, however, hear Kganyago differently. They will understand him to be saying his administration frowns on corruption and has no room for cronyism. They will hear from Kganyago how, if someone as senior as Mkhize, someone with clear presidential ambitions, could be felled through evidence, then clearly the Ramaphosa administration has demonstrated it has no room for those who want to turn the ANC into a criminal enterprise. They will look around and say fair-minded South Africans will understand Kganyago differently to the EFF and the DA. They will say that, not too long ago, SA, under now-sickly former president Jacob Zuma, was a sad joke among nations of the world, having been auctioned to the Gupta brothers now hiding in Dubai. The state was looted, no, wait, robbed in broad daylight. Money that was supposed to be used to benefit the poor wasgiven to shady businessmen and politicians. The economy was in free fall. Therefore, fair-minded South Africans do understand that the reasons the country wallows in junk are largely because of historical issues to do with Zuma and, as Ramaphosa himself often says, reconstruction is hard and takes time. It’s easier to board a wrecking ball, as Zuma did, and unleash mayhem, hunger and ignominy.
Who, then, must South Africans believe?
The key issue is credibility. For most voters it’s going to be about whether Ramaphosa is turning things around. Should he be believed when he says a new dawn is around the corner or are things becoming worse? Is corruption getting worse? Is unemployment getting worse? Is inequality getting worse? Can he justifiably blame Zuma and not be seen to be deflecting?
We must remember how the ANC was written off, mostly by the media, under Zuma’s administration.
In the end, many agree the ANC is facing its sternest test. It is dealing with an electorate tired of false promises, but an electorate more disappointed by the likes of Mkhize, who ought to have known better. This electorate, largely in urban centres, believes the reason it doesn’t see progress is because its comrades are sharing tenders, killing each other for positions and remembering them only when it’s time for elections.
That said, we must remember how the ANC was written off, mostly by the media, under Zuma’s administration. The media said the ANC would lose because its president was corrupt, a machine gun-threatening dancer who could not even articulate policy.
The ANC was dead, the media said then, as it does now.
The ANC won then. Will it win now? In my view, it has a 50/50 chance. Its chances remain high not because it is the best the country has, but because the competition too is beset by a litany of challenges that put potential voters off.
Fair-minded South Africans, I posit, will listen to all politicians and know they are offering spin. But it is when they listen to someone like Kganyago that they will put their finger on the pulse of the South African story. They will then say it’s not true that the ANC that is led by Ramaphosa is the same as the one led by Zuma. They will know that if there was no change at the ANC Nasrec conference that elected Ramaphosa, party secretary-general Magashule would still be at Luthuli House, businessman Edwin Sodi would not be out on bail (exposing beneficiaries of his corrupt network), Mkhize would still be giving Digital Vibes more cash, the bandits behind PPE corruption would not be running scared, killing good people such as Babita Deokaran, and the SIU would not be one of the most powerful anti-corruption units, a symbol that our democracy is working. Average Joe will say things are changing, albeit slowly, but changing nonetheless.
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