Kenny Kunene and the growing gangsterisation of our politics

The fact that Kenny Kunene was found with Katiso “KT” Molefe, who is accused of being the mastermind behind the hit on DJ Sumbody (Oupa John Sefoka), may well have surprised very few people.

While Kunene claims that he has mended his ways since serving time in jail, his behaviour has shown in the past that he still has links to this community.

It is true that people voted for the Patriotic Alliance knowing the history of both Kunene and its leader Gayton McKenzie. None of what they have done was a secret.

But it may be a sign that the PA has ambitions of becoming more mainstream that McKenzie has now “suspended” Kunene from “all politics” for a month.

That said, McKenzie’s public proclamation that “We already know… that he is innocent” may well cast doubt on the real integrity of the investigation he is now going to institute.

Read more: ‘He would never get involved with murders,’ says Gayton McKenzie after suspending Kenny Kunene

Of course both men have a long history of dirty politics.

The two were suspected of being behind the publishing of claims in Iqbal Surve’s Sunday Independent that President Cyril Ramaphosa had had an affair in 2017, during the run-up to the ANC’s Nasrec Conference. Certainly, from the vantage point of this writer at the time, they were acting against Ramaphosa. 

This was probably explained by the fact McKenzie and Kunene had been selected, presumably by then president Jacob Zuma, as BEE partners for a R5-billion gas and oil deal in Russia. 

So close was their relationship with Zuma at the time that they appeared close to being able to appoint their councillor Leanne Williams as national police commissioner (in a subsequent radio interview Williams confirmed she had gone through the process of being vetted, despite having no previous experience in policing).

Of course, considering Zuma’s relationship with the Guptas, and his enablement of their theft from us, it is pretty obvious that they would have the same interests.

Ties that bind

One major change is that the links between criminals and our politics are growing closer. 

The claims by KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi that former police minister Senzo Mchunu is involved with criminals, are just the latest manifestation of this.

The history of this is long and sordid, including Jackie Selebi’s conviction for taking money from Glenn Agliotti, and Schabir Shaik’s conviction for paying bribes to Zuma in 2005.

The other big shift is that people are entering politics having become part of criminal networks first.

In Joburg, the ANC’s Chief Whip, Sithembiso Zungu, is accused of leading what is essentially a construction mafia group. 

This is part of a bigger process as some of the groups come out of the shadows and are trying to change from “construction mafias” to “business forums”.

At the same time, other changes in our politics have made this kind of move, from criminality to political office, much easier.

Firstly, parties like the ANC are weaker than they’ve ever been, and thus are easier to join.

And, for various reasons, it is now easier to rise to certain positions, partly because there is less competition, and partly because this involves internal campaigning and thus money.

Of course, it is also possible to start your own party and actually have an influence in a metro like Joburg (where seven parties have just one seat) or Mangaung (where the ANC has been unable to discipline its members).

But what may really be enabling this is the fact that those in the national government, right at the top, are lacking the legitimacy to really stop this from happening.

Ramaphosa was happy to include the PA in his coalition for important political reasons. This is despite knowing their history (and the fact that Kunene was probably instrumental in revealing excruciatingly embarrassing details about his personal life).

Unfortunately, Ramaphosa himself is accused of breaking the law.

While the South African Police Service, the Public Protector and the SA Reserve Bank have all, magically, cleared him of wrongdoing over Phala Phala, the stench still lingers.

And what can be more gangsta than storing cash in a sofa and appearing to forget about it?

Democracy undermined

The impact of all of this on our society is fundamental and profound. Businesses cannot operate. And they cannot know how to protect their workers and assets in the face of a criminal state.

Outsurance is a recent example of this. It emerged last month that a claim it paid out on a car after a reported accident was actually fraudulent.

The company that had paid the insurance premiums turned out to be a front for an SANDF Special Forces unit. That unit is accused of killing Hawks investigator Frans Mathipa, using the car in the hit.

They are then accused of deliberately destroying it.

How can Outsurance conduct its business not knowing if a company it has signed a contract with is not actually an arm of the state that is killing people?

Read more: South Africans are sick to death of persistent corruption by politicians

For voters the damage is even worse. If there is no trust in politicians, then there can be no trust in the criminal justice system they oversee. 

But worse, if people are now entering politics to extend their criminal empires, the entire democratic project gets undermined.

This will encourage and enable the rise of people who will promise to use violence against crime. 

Groups involving criminals will do this too, claiming to be speaking for their communities (the PA has arguably done this already, campaigning to reinstate the death penalty for crimes like murder; of course, they do not foresee a situation where one of their own could be accused of theft or corruption). 

In the end the competition will be for who can be seen as the toughest, or the most violent, against crime. That then sows the seeds for some kind of “strongman” politics, where people will make the most extreme promises.

In the meantime, the social ties and rules that are supposed to ensure some kind of fairness will simply break down. It will be rule by the strong. Where the weak will have no option but to either cower, or use violence themselves.

Kunene is by no means the only politician connected to criminality. This incident is merely the latest expression of it.

But our society appears to be heading in a very dangerous direction. And we are moving there very quickly indeed. DM