If you stop and listen carefully in the streets and suburbs of SA today you will hear the gnashing of teeth, you will see the wringing of hands and you will hear the moaning and weeping of those who are about to face the consequences of their actions. These actions and sounds are from those who, throughout the 2010s, were the “masters of our universe”, those who were close to political power, those who stole and defrauded the people of SA through corruption.
Like so many others before them, they thought their date with accountability would never come. They were arrogant, calling journalists names and spewing words of division and hate. Those who raised their voices against this corruption were called “clever blacks” and accused, like former public protector Thuli Madonsela, of being foreign spies.
Well, the time to account is here for some, and it is getting closer and closer for the many others who are now taking to social media and stridently telling us to “report about that one” or proclaiming that some of us ignore corruption “by that one”. As they engage in these pathetic bouts of “whataboutism”, they say nothing about their own corruption.
Last week was such a good week for the National Prosecuting Authority. It was a great week for any South African who has watched their country being stolen by corrupt politicians and their cronies over the past 12 years. On Friday we saw two extremely big fish implicated in the Zondo commission report, former Transnet CEO Siyabonga Gama and former Trillian Capital Partners CEO Eric Wood, appear in court. It was the culmination of a fantastic four-day run for the NPA and the Hawks. They had arrested and brought 15 suspects to court on various corruption allegations, which have been exposed by the media and ventilated at the Zondo commission.
These suspects now have the chance to clear their names in the people’s courts. Let them do so.
Independent institutions will foster a new patriotism, a new South Africanness, a new ethos, that breaks from the divisions created by the ANC’s capture of these formations in the 2000s.
The first thing about these arrests is that we must not let them go by without the appropriate recognition. People like me are very quick — and correct — to criticise the likes of Hawks head Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya and NPA head Shamila Batohi when there are no arrests or prosecutions. Well, they are here now. Kudos to these two. They are stepping up and changing the narrative from what we had in the days of the weaklings who headed up these two institutions under president Jacob Zuma.
The NPA’s investigating directorate spokesperson, Sindisiwe Seboka, said last week: “It has been a successful week for law enforcement.”
I totally agree. Now, we need more. Crucially, we need convictions. Many convictions.
More importantly, these small steps — starting with the appointment of the Zondo commission, through to these arrests — shows the political will to foster independent institutions. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration, in its own fumbling manner, has at least shown that unlike his comrade and predecessor he is committed to this. He deserves the highest praise for energising these two institutions and he should be encouraged to continue to strengthen them.
Independent institutions will foster a new patriotism, a new South Africanness, a new ethos, that breaks from the divisions created by the ANC’s capture of these formations in the 2000s. By building an independent NPA, a South African child will want to train to be a prosecutor who brings down the bad guys, not a “Zuma lawyer” or something of that sort.
The conundrum for Ramaphosa, of course, is that independent institutions like these will inevitably come for the many ANC leaders fingered in the Zondo report. He must let the law take its course. It will be hard. It will be extremely hard. It may even break the ANC. Yet, for real renewal of the party to happen, it must happen. Otherwise his project will be stillborn.
For SA, the pain of this process of cleaning up the Augean stables is by no means over. The culprits know that the law enforcement agencies are beginning to stir meaningfully. As we speak, there is a concerted, cynical, and dangerous campaign to besmirch the names of judges and to undermine the public institutions that are beginning to stir.
It intensified in January with the disgusting smear campaign against justice Dunstan Mlambo at the Judicial Services Commission. It has continued with attempts on social media to paint chief justice Raymond Zondo as “political” and partisan. It seems as if, over the next few weeks, there will be more attempts to smear the man. That is the nature of the beast now: smear campaigns against leaders of our institutions that are run on Twitter without a shred of evidence.
Let us not despair, though. These smear campaigns are the last kicks of the horses that are going to jail.
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