Last week the latest corruption scandal to rock the African National Congress (ANC) made headlines when Hitachi agreed to pay $19-million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges of corrupt payments to ANC front company Chancellor House, in order to secure one of South Africa’s biggest ever state tenders.

What makes this scandal unique is that a settlement of this size and nature is, for the first time, a de facto admission of guilt, and prima facie evidence of massive tender corruption. In a detailed judgment, it is spelled out exactly how Chancellor House – and thus the ANC – benefitted directly to the tune of at least R100-million from the awarding of state contracts to a company in which they owned a 25% stake.

I’m sure just about everyone knows the story by now, but to summarise: In 2006 Hitachi sold a 25% stake in its South African unit to Chancellor House, allowing it to share in any future profits. The following year, Hitachi went on to win a R38.5-billion contract to install boilers at the Medupi and Kusile power plants, netting the ANC a known profit of at least $6-million in dividends and a number of barely-disguised kickbacks labelled “success fees” and “consultation fees”. I say “known profit”, because many put this figure much higher. And even more profit was made when, bowing to years of pressure, Chancellor House finally sold back its 25% share to Hitachi in 2014.

On Thursday, the ANC scrambled desperately to put some distance between themselves and the scandal, but no amount of spin can alter several clear and unambiguous facts:

• Chancellor House specifically sought out investments where government and state-owned enterprises were handing out big contracts.

• Hitachi knew well in advance of the bid that Chancellor House was an ANC front company.

• At the time of awarding the Medupi and Kusile contracts to Hitachi and Chancellor House, then Eskom board chairman Valli Moosa was also serving on the ANC’s fundraising committee.

• Part of the $19-million Hitachi settlement stipulates that they may never in future claim their innocence in this matter.

There are many more damning details to this case, but these facts alone tell you all you need to know. And you’d have to search long and hard to find a single soul outside of the ANC’s choir of automatic defenders who will doubt the ruling party’s complicity and guilt. It’s not a happy story, and it paints a very grim picture of what is left of the governing party’s moral resolve.

At the Democratic Alliance (DA), we know what we have to do. This kind of corruption will destroy our nation. If left unchecked, it will ruin every sphere and every branch of government. It will paralyse our ability to look after our people – to deliver services, to protect, to provide healthcare, to educate. It will wreck any global credibility we have left, it will chase away investors and it will kill jobs. As an opposition party, we will fight seven days a week, 24 hours a day to expose corruption – to see to it that it is investigated and prosecuted. This is not only our moral duty as South African citizens, it is also our job as the official opposition.

On Wednesday last week, we did just this. I took three different steps towards bringing the guilty parties in the ANC/Hitachi corruption scandal to book: I wrote to the public protector to request that she investigates the process by which the Eskom tender was awarded; I laid a charge with the South African Police Service (SAPS) against Chancellor House in terms of the Prevention of Corrupt Activities Act; and I lodged a complaint with the World Bank, which provided Eskom with the loan to fund the Hitachi deal. Actions like these are the beginning of the long, hard slog. At the DA we know only too well how slowly the wheels of justice can turn. We know that most of this work happens far away from the pages of the newspapers. We know that our efforts will be deliberately frustrated by the ANC government and its proxies in many crucial institutions. But we do it without fail because it is our job.

And so it was disappointing and, frankly, baffling to read a piece on Wednesday here on Daily Maverick by one of its senior contributors in which the DA’s efforts were ultimately dismissed as futile and ineffectual. The gist of the piece was: Yes, there was corruption. Yes, there was conflict of interest. Yes, Chancellor House is an ANC front through which Hitachi paid a huge bribe to secure the contracts. But so what? There’s no “smoking gun”. No one can stop it. No one will investigate it. So why does the DA even bother laying charges? Followed by a cynical “Good luck with that”.

The author made some valid points about the obstacles to the investigative and legal processes. Following a calculated campaign of cadre deployment by the president, institutions such as the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are becoming increasingly hostile towards the DA. But these are the same obstacles we faced in getting the Spy Tapes released, or getting Nkandla investigated by the public protector, or getting the Constitutional Court to set aside President Jacob Zuma’s decision to appoint Menzi Simelane as head of the NPA. Just last week, the DA’s efforts saw the South African National Road Agency’s plans to toll several roads in the Western Cape halted. We do win.

And it is precisely because of these obstacles that we have spread our focus as wide as possible. While the public protector has no jurisdiction over private entities such as Chancellor House or political parties such as the ANC, we have requested that she interrogate the process by which the Eskom tender was awarded to Hitachi. The timing of Chancellor House’s 25% stake acquisition, the payment of “success fees” to Chancellor House and the way in which these payments were inaccurately recorded in Hitachi’s books all point to massive tender fraud, and this falls within the public protector’s jurisdiction.

We also know that we’re not likely to find a host of sympathetic investigators at the NPA, but this cannot be a reason not to report a crime and lay a charge. If you are a victim of a crime, you still report the crime to the police, regardless of your expectations. Laying a charge with the SAPS is step one in what could be a long, drawn-out process. And as far as a lack of evidence is concerned – most complaints are laid on suspicion. The bulk of the evidence then emerges in the investigation.

And then there’s the World Bank’s involvement. Back in 2010, Helen Zille asked the World Bank not to provide the funding to Eskom (and effectively bankroll the ANC through Chancellor House). We saw this coming, they did not, and they granted the loan. Last week’s news reports would have made them question that decision, I’m sure. But they can still invoke their power to demand financial restitution, which is what I have asked them to do.

The point is that we must guard against a defeatist and cynical viewpoint when it comes to fighting corruption. We cannot allow ourselves to be daunted by scandal fatigue. We cannot let the growing mountain of corruption cases and the perceived lack of repercussions weaken our resolve. I know people lose faith in the system when they see Zuma and his cronies get away with it week in and week out. And I have immense respect for my colleagues who come to work every day to fight this fight and not allow themselves to become despondent.

Corruption is one of the greatest enemies of our democracy and certainly not a victimless crime. The victims of this crime are millions of people who have been profoundly affected by the ANC’s decision to get into bed with Hitachi for personal enrichment. Medupi and Kusile have been plagued by cost overruns and delays, and Eskom is on record as having admitted that faults with Hitachi’s boilers are the main reason for these delays. This has led to load-shedding, crippling tariff hikes and, ultimately, an economic slowdown that has cost thousands of South Africans their jobs. Corruption is never a victimless crime, but this case is as damaging as it gets.

Ten years ago (and almost three years before he was ousted as ANC president at their national conference in Polokwane), then president Thabo Mbeki expressed his concern over the steady creep of state corruption. He placed South Africa at a crossroads when he remarked: “What we do in this regard will define whether our organisation, the ANC, continues to maintain its noble character as a servant of all the people of South Africa, or degenerates into an ignoble, blood-sucking and corrupt parasite, an enemy of an immensely heroic people.”

The recent discussion document released by the ANC ahead of their national general council suggests that the latter is exactly what has happened. By their own admission, “with regard to such issues as state capacity and effectiveness, ethical conduct, dignity and gravitas, the ANC is losing the moral high ground”. The ANC concedes that there is a “general impression of systemic corruption” in our society, including “allegations … within high leadership echelons”, acknowledging that “many of the acts of corruption in government derive from party dynamics”.

But rather than leading us down a defeatist path, this should serve as a call to action. Our country, despite its enormous challenges and despite its compromised leadership, is still governed by one of the world’s finest constitutions and by the rule of law. And because of this, my colleagues and I will never lose heart. Through our institutions of democracy, we will continue to fight for justice and for equality before the law. And very often we will win. DM