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Is South Africa's problem state capture or the state of capture.

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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