When President Ramaphosa won the 54th National Conference of the
ANC in 2017, and later the 2019 National Elections for him to be sworn in as
President of the Republic, many South Africans breathed a sigh of relief.
Ramaphosa's NEC recalled Jacob Zuma in early 2018, and one centre of political
power was consolidated. This means Ramaphosa is now in his sixth year as
President of the Republic. The circumstances surrounding the recall of Jacob
Zuma, his 'guilty of corruption and state capture verdict by the courts of
public opinion', 'him being paraded at the globally televised Zondo Commission
as a symbol of corruption and state capture', and ultimately the 'July 2021
insurrection' following his arrest after a Constitutional Court issued warrant
of arrest have shaken the democratic order to its core, only its resilience
kept it standing to date.
At
the core of Ramaphosa's rise to power has been an unequivocal commitment to
fight corruption and state capture, especially by senior public officials and
politicians charged with leading South Africa. Emboldened by the step aside
clause in the member integrity management policy or system of the ANC,
President Ramaphosa took some of the bold steps to indicate that his tenure
will not be business as usual when it comes to corruption. In an unprecedented
way, he declared that his governing party might not be the only one standing in
the dock in the general trial on corruption and state capture, but it is
accused number one. This declaration drew a decisive line in the short history
of the ANC in government, and projected a different future in matters ethics
and consequence management by post-liberation governing parties in
post-conflict states.
Comparisons
with the choice by Singaporean political elites to develop the country and not
enrich themselves started to surface. Ramaphosa amassed in the process
political and social capital outside the ANC which was last seen in that
abundance during the Nelson Mandela presidency. Ratings of Ramaphosa the person
took a hockey stick form, save for that failing to persuade foreign direct
investment landing on our shores.
However,
the threat of corruption and state capture to the post-July 2021 fragile
constitutional democratic order had not receded commensurate with the rise in benevolence
of a Ramaphosa presidency. That institutions of state leadership have survived
corruption and state capture as accounted for, though not proven in courts, did
not make these institutions survive current institutionalised criminality
ecosystems that developed alongside corruption and state capture. With the
criminal justice system having suffered the greatest of the corruption and
capture wrath, a private security system which provided real time protection
developed into an amorphous parallel system some the 'vulnerable' private
sector companies fed with contracts to protect themselves. Alarming was the
depth of involvement in corruption by those that supported Ramaphosa's
anti-corruption tirades, and how the system would somehow cushion them not to
be prosecutable.
A
sophisticated new breed of state capturers was in ascendancy, and these were
parasitic to the anti-corruption and state capture rhetoric of Ramaphosa. South
Africa has morphed into a sophisticated politico-gangster state with beyond the
governing party networks that imperils the fragile democratic order and the
founding values of the nation. The Andre de Ruyter revelations about the
criminal networks in ESKOM, the 30% mafia in the construction industry, the
rise of armed personal bodyguard business, and the institutionalised purchase
of branches at conferences of virtually all political parties are all pointing
towards a period of protracted regime instability. A autocracy of criminals
marked by flagrant disregard of the rule of law, and heightened terrorisation
of corporate citizens that cannot afford protection fees or private security is
settling in. The concomitant rise of criminality by undocumented foreign
nationals armed with military equipment that remains unaccounted for in countries
whence they originate is another element which indicate that what President
Ramaphosa is herding are all non-indigenous species.
Unmitigated,
the firmament of criminality and the proximity of some inside the political and
economic elites to underworld generals will define South Africa as a 'mafia
state'. What the criminal underworld is good at, especially when it has
succeeded to have those in politics encumbered to it, is to corrupt key state
institutions and subvert them for personal aggrandisement, partisan ends, and
non-democratic ends. As this convergence of politics and criminality, otherwise
also called corruption, become habits of those leading society, it quickly
matures into a value system defining that society. That it is becoming a way of
doing things, society will start experiencing the public service and
administration system being weaponised against political rivals, and in some
instances those the inner circles with politico-criminalised power envy in the
economic competitive environment. Calibration of democratic
instruments and systems intended to protect the public against abuse of power
will in such contexts be attuned to protect those in power as well as those
pursuing undue largesse.
The truth might be when we celebrated the truncation of further Guptarisation of society, we might have done so without paying attention to the grand Guptarisors in the system. The political polarisation that followed de-Guptarisation, as truth or propaganda, might have also blinded us to ask the real questions at the commissions of enquiry we established to pursue what happened and was happening. Reports from our commissions do not seem to have decisively dealt with what is state capture but rather dealt with the state of capture. This might have sent a message that the state will always be captured, it is the state of capture that might be a problem.
Our
democracy has thus far been resilient to the wrath of corruption as an
established way of doing things. The refusal of the criminal justice system as
an institution of principles and values to succumb to the behaviours of those
operating within it, has emboldened the ethical in the system to be the last
frontiers against corruption. The public protector, various ombudsbodies,
chapter 9 institutions in the Constitution, whistle blowers, a vibrant civil
society network, and dividends of a multiparty political system in the form of
parliamentary questions have to date been the bastions of the values and
ethicalness our country yearns for. CUT!!!
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