I choked on my coffee when I read in the Sunday Times that ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula now thinks it was a mistake to destroy the Scorpions. This was the Directorate of Special Operations within the National Prosecuting Authority that incorporated police investigative, forensic and prosecutorial capability.
The unit had a high conviction rate of more than 90% of the cases it pursued. All of these involved organised crime, corruption and terrorism and needed a level of competence and complexity the police did not have at the time. At its formation, it also solved a legacy problem, which was relying on elements of the brutal special branch that was used by the apartheid government to harass and torture anti-apartheid activists and guerrillas.
In expressing his regret, Mbalula’s U-turn skims the surface, hiding the real reason the ANC decided to move swiftly after its December 2007 national conference in Polokwane. As they claimed before, he still says that it was because of the “Hollywood style” arrests that the decision was taken to kill the fight against corruption. This is lying by omission.
The Scorpions had not shown a deference to political office-bearers of the ANC and as such were on the brink of bringing corruption charges against then ANC president Jacob Zuma. He and many others needed to be protected at all costs, so the unit had to go. As a result, we lost the fight against corruption just as it began to gather momentum.
Today, Mbalula chooses his words carefully, saying the Scorpions need to be brought back to “fight crime”. He seems unable to bring himself to say the truth as it is, which is that such a unit is needed to fight corruption in the private and public sectors, which has thrived since that fateful decision. A lot of it was perpetrated by Mbalula’s comrades, who still believe they are untouchable and must be excluded from accountability.
He also does not blame the ANC for killing the anti-corruption and anti-organised crime fighting capacity the Scorpions possessed. In the article, he says: “South Africa made a mistake.” This is a lie. It was the ANC that took a conscious decision rather than commit a mistake. South Africa was the victim.
Mbalula’s technique is well used in the ANC. When it becomes apparent that its own decisions have proven to be harmful to the country and its people, its leaders pin the failure on individuals rather than the party itself. This is so that we hold on to the fraudulent belief that as soon as that bunch of individuals have been removed from their positions, then the party is automatically cleansed. It then gets a fresh start to cause more destruction.
We must not fall for this trick. Let me outline five ways the ANC’s decision to kill the country’s capacity to fight crime and corruption has caused national suffering.
First, the decision to destroy the Scorpions also necessitated the weakening of the National Prosecuting Authority. The ANC placed in its leadership people who were found to be unfit for office, and many continue to occupy important positions at the prosecutorial agency. As a result of the political interference, no good lawyer wants to work for the NPA, so it continues to struggle to secure convictions for complex and serious crimes.
In the article, he (Fikile Mbalula) says, ‘South Africa made a mistake’. This is a lie. It was the ANC that took a conscious decision rather than commit a mistake. South Africa was the victim.
Second, what we now know to have been “state capture” probably would never have happened. While many focus on just the Guptas, the Zondo commission established that there were many instances where private interests took virtual control of government agencies or their decisions to facilitate looting. These were not victimless crimes, as that is money that could have been used to further South Africa’s development and wellbeing of her people.
Third, the grand looting at Eskom delivered the daily power blackouts we experience today. In its latest monetary policy committee statement, the South African Reserve Bank said load-shedding is destroying two percentage points of growth. It is also leading to a higher cost of living as businesses such as retailers, farmers and food producers have to buy diesel to keep their operations going. This cost is passed on to already struggling consumers.
Fourth, the other major crime scene, Transnet, is also cited as being responsible for low economic growth and additional costs to consumers. This is because after years of political interference from the ANC, and corruption on a grand scale, our main rail network struggles to meet its basic mandate. The looters had no fear of arrest because the agency that would have investigated and arrested them was not there.
Fifth, the wanton destruction of public institutions and clean government has led us to fall behind in public infrastructure building and maintenance, causing untold suffering and deaths. Children continue to die in pit latrines, while people die of cholera amid allegations of corruption in the installation of water treatment facilities in Tshwane.
It is very rich of Mbalula or anyone in the ANC to now make a U-turn without taking political responsibility for the suffering they have caused. Today, most municipalities are hardly functional and are overseen by councils whose members often have no capacity to grasp the tasks the law entrusts them with, when they are not facilitating looting.
Ultimately, it is the culture of impunity that people like Fikile Mbalula and thousands of ANC delegates started that has forced South Africa to its knees. The change of heart is insufficient and insincere. I hope not many people fall for it.
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